Usman was spotted wearing a brace on his hand amidst rumors he may not be able to fight Leon Edwards on March 17th in London.
The UFC is set to return to the UK on March 18th for a full pay-per-view event at the O2 Arena, but the event may not be topped by the headline fight everyone is expecting.
The original goal was to have new welterweight champion Leon Edwards rematch Kamaru Usman at a stadium. The stadium thing was ditched, and now there’s rumors flying that Usman won’t be ready to compete in March due to a hand injury. While “The Nigerian Nightmare” is being tight-lipped about the situation, he did show up to an MMA event in Lagos, Nigeria wearing a hand brace, which certainly doesn’t bode well.
You can see a screenshot of the appearance from Thursday December 29th’s Face Off Fight Night 3 event via Twitter user Grabaka Hitman, who has an impressive ability to track all the goings on in the international MMA world.
Kamaru Usman addressed the crowd after at Face Off FN. Still seems to be nursing a hand injury. pic.twitter.com/K4t5SndtwL
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) December 29, 2022
Word that Kamaru Usman may not be able to fight Leon Edwards in London started to circulate widely after Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson suggested in mid-December that the UFC was looking for replacement options.
“People are in-talks of me fighting Leon Edwards,” Thompson said on the Fred Talks Fighting podcast. “I know Kamaru Usman is having hand surgery, I know they want to fight somebody in March and they were looking at Jorge Masvidal. He’s a standup fighter, so it kind of inspires me a bit, our division is so wrestler-heavy, and Leon Edwards is a striker and he’s champ.”
Fred Beck, the host of Fred Talks Fighting, then tweeted about Usman being out of the Edwards fight due to hand surgery. Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz replied, calling the tweet ‘Fake news.’
Fake news https://t.co/AbJ5UrPxez
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) December 12, 2022
Usman has a long history with hand injuries and actually competed against Colby Covington with a broken fist in November 2021. In February “The Nigerian Nightmare” underwent surgery to repair ligaments in the same hand. And now we’ve got this speculation regarding another possible hand issue.
While it’s still premature to assume too much regarding Kamaru Usman’s health and his ability to fight Leon Edwards in March, it’s clear something is going on with the longtime 170 pound kingpin’s hand. We can only hope that whatever it is doesn’t stop one of the most anticipated rematches of the year from coming together as originally planned.