What is Next for the UFC’s Welterweight Division after Kamaru Usman’s loss at UFC 278?

There have been many plot twists in the UFC the past couple of years for MMA fans. From Amanda Nunes losing her belt to Tony Ferguson getting knocked out cold, there have been very shocking moments in the UFC. But even those two unexpected turns of events do not compare to Kamaru Usman getting knocked out by Leon Edwards. Whether or not you like Leon Edwards, all MMA fans can admit that Leon’s knockout was spectacular. This leaves one question for UFC fans, what is next for the welterweight division?

Leon Edwards

It seems to me that the UFC is currently planning on booking a trilogy fight between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman, so this sort of already explains itself to the naked eye. The one issue I see with this fight is when is Kamaru Usman planning on fighting, because I can imagine that getting knocked out in such brutal fashion is hard to come back from. If Usman is not ready to fight for another year, which he has every right to do so, and Edwards is ready to fight in a few months, I think it would be wrong of the UFC to make Leon Edwards wait until Usman is willing to fight. In the end, it all comes down to when ‘Rocky’ and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ are willing to fight and who they are willing to fight.

Colby Covington

Colby Covington is definitely a very good fighter; the only issue is that he has not had a fight with most of the top fighters that are currently fighting at welterweight. I think that Leon Edwards will fight Usman again, Usman will gain his belt back and then proceed to retire. Then the UFC will have to create a fight where the winner of Chimaev vs. Diaz will fight Colby Covington if ‘Chaos’ can pull off a win against a top five fighter.

Khamzat Chimaev

Let’s say that Nate Diaz beats Khamzat Chimaev, Nate Diaz will most likely get a title fight. If Chimaev beats Nate Diaz, Chimaev will probably need another fight for unfortunate reasons. Since Chimaev did not finish Gilbert Burns in his last fight, many people think that Chimaev is ‘hyped.’ Another reason that Khamzat will not get a title fight anytime soon is that many people do think that Khamzat would absolutely obliterate both Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards, so obviously Kamaru and Leon are stalling so they do not have to fight Chimaev.

Gilbert Burns

Gilbert Burns has had quite the hard time finding a fight the past couple of months. He announced multiple times that the UFC was working on a fight between him and Jorge Masvidal. Later, these rumors were shut down when Masvidal said that this was not true and that he did not want to fight Gilbert Burns. This was probably pretty upsetting to burns because he has wanted to fight ‘Gamebred’ for a very long time and now this is no longer happening although UFC president Dana White said he would like this fight. Even though Burns did not get the ‘money fight’ he wanted, he can still get up higher in the rankings by fighting Colby Covington. As I said before, if Colby can pull off a win against a higher ranked fighter like Gilbert Burns, he could get a title shot. So it would be the winner of Chimaev vs. Diaz vs. the winner of Covington vs. Burns for the title after Usman would retire.

Welterweight is a very exciting weight class with a bunch of rising stars that definitely have a chance of touching gold in the future, but as of now, I think this is what will happen.