Nigeria’s Mohammed Usman Secures Victory Over Junior Tafa at UFC Fight Night

Nigeria’s Mohammed Usman Secures Victory Over Junior Tafa at UFC Fight Night

Byron Pillay
updated at April 22, 2023 at 11:54 PM
  • Mohammed Usman picked up the 10th win of his professional MMA career at UFC Fight Night
  • Junior Tafa is known as a knockout artist but battled to defend on the ground against Usman
  • Usman is looking to follow in the footsteps of his brother, The Nigerian Nightmare, Kamaru

Mohammed Usman is looking to make a name for himself in the heavyweight division in the UFC.

Mohammed, the brother of former Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, picked up his second win in a row in the Octagon against the debuting Junior Tafa.

Mohammed Usman, Sport, World, UFC, MMA, Kamaru Usman, Nigeria, Win, Junior Tafa
Mohammed Usman picked up the 10th win of his professional career as he defeated Junior Tafa at UFC Fight Night. Image: Chris Unger
Source: Getty Images

Mohammed earned a spot in the UFC after winning The Ultimate Fighter and proved that he can be a force to be reckoned with, thanks to his unanimous decision victory over Tafa.

Tafa, whose brother Justin is also a UFC competitor, started the fight stronger, landing big shots in the first round. The Australian heavyweight, known for being a knockout artist, looked to knock out Usman before the fight entered the second round.

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Round 2

The Nigerian fighter was gassed after a tough first round, but after getting advice from his corner, and brother Kamaru, he employed a new gameplan in rounds two and three.

Usman took the fight to the ground in the second and wore down Tafa with his grappling skills. The previously undefeated Tafa had no answer for the ground game and did enough to avoid any submissions or severe damage during the second round.

Round 3

In the third round, Usman employed his successful strategy from the second and again took the fight to the ground. He controlled the fight again and survived a late surge from Tafa, who managed to get to his feet with the last ten seconds to go and tried his best to knock out the Nigerian.

All three judges then gave the fight to Usman, who notched up the 10th win of his professional career.

Usman responds to du Plessis

Nigeria's Kamaru Usman is not happy with South African fighter, Dricus du Plessis' recent comments.

Du Plessis, an undefeated Middleweight in the UFC, recently talked about being from Africa and wanting to be an African champion.

Du Plessis suggested that previous champions, like Usman and Israel Adesanya, were not real African champions because they didn't live in the country, Sports Brief reported.

Authors
Byron Pillay photo
Byron Pillay
Byron Pillay is a sports writer and Head of the Department at Sports Brief (joined in 2022) with over 10 years of experience in community journalism and a degree in journalism from Caxton's Cadet School.
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WorldNigeriaKamaru Usman