Kamaru Usman

CTL-E-7134 · Person · other · contemporary

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-08006 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7134.

Kamarudeen “Kamaru” Usman (born May 11, 1987, in Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria) is a Nigerian-American mixed martial artist billed as “The Nigerian Nightmare.” Usman was born in Auchi and brought to Dallas, Texas, at age eight; he became the 2010 NCAA Division II wrestling champion at 174 pounds for the University of Nebraska at Kearney and won The Ultimate Fighter 21 in 2015. On March 2, 2019, he dominated Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 to become the first Nigerian-born UFC champion, then defended the welterweight title five times — twice each against Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal, and once against Gilbert Burns. At UFC 278 on August 20, 2022, Leon Edwards knocked him out with a head kick at 4:04 of the fifth round, with less than a minute left in a fight Usman was winning; Usman lost the UFC 286 rematch and a short-notice middleweight bout with Khamzat Chimaev. He beat Joaquin Buckley in June 2025, then lost a middleweight bout to former champion Dricus Du Plessis by unanimous decision on July 18, 2026, in Oklahoma City. His record stands at 21–5 (16–4 in the UFC).

The record

• Also known as: The Nigerian Nightmare

Notes

Usman has spoken of 2026 as a final championship push before retirement; no retirement has been announced as of this record's access date, and none is asserted. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Usman's five-defense reign was built on the least glamorous virtues — pressure, conditioning, control — and his corridor story, Auchi to Dallas to a UFC belt, is exactly the diaspora arc this graph exists to hold. Photo: CLEARED — Kamaru Usman.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Relationships

• Leon Edwards — related to
  A three-fight welterweight rivalry spanning eight years: Usman won the first meeting in 2015; Edwards took Usman's title with a fifth-round head-kick knockout at UFC 278 (2022); Edwards won the UFC 286 rematch (2023).

Sources

• Wikipedia, “Kamaru Usman”; accessed 2026-11-04 (primary source · build store)
• MMA Junkie, “UFC Oklahoma City: How to watch Du Plessis vs. Usman, lineup, odds, more” (July 13, 2026); accessed 2026-11-04 (build store)
• AgentMMA fighter database, “Kamaru Usman”; accessed 2026-11-04 (build store)

More person records

• Maya Moore
• Maya Rudolph
• Maysa
• Maze Jackson
• MC Hammer
• MC Lyte

Browse the full directory: all entity records

Record CTL-E-7134 · Combined Graph record U-08006 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.