The UFC has a Kamaru Usman problem.

Heading into UFC 278, Usman was the reigning and defending undisputed UFC welterweight champion. He was undefeated in the organization and on a run of 15 wins. One more win would tie him with Anderson Silva for longest ever win streak in the organization and on five defenses in 1,267 days, he overtook Tyron Woodley in the welterweight division and was hot on the heels of Georges St-Pierre’s nine defenses in just over 2,000.

Silva and GSP are all-time greats, MMA royalty and essentially the Messi and Ronaldo of the GOAT discussion. For Usman to conquer both their legacies would almost certainly confirm his status as the undeniable best to ever do it in the UFC – and yet, the one aspect of fandom that he stuck with him is the nickname "Kamaru Snoozeman."

Of those 15 wins, 10 were by decision and all those were created by his smothering NCAA-calibre wrestling. It isn't simply that highlights were few and far between but opponents such as Jorge Masvidal and Leon Edwards (in their first fight back in 2015) left the Octagon without a blemish on them, meaning they often came away looking like the moral victor.

Having beaten several top ranked opponents twice already (Masvidal, Colby Covington) and the remainder of the top 10 either coming off a loss or too low down to justify a title shot, the UFC 278 main event was a rematch with Leon "Rocky" Edwards, seven years in the making.

He deserved it too, as nobody has beaten him since Usman did. But in the intervening 10 fights, seven were won by decision and one was a no contest. With Khamzat Chimaev, Sean Brady and Shavkhat Rakhmanov storming up the rankings, creating one highlight reel moment after the next, this felt like giving the deserved challenger his shot before letting the sharks into the tank.

At some point around 11 p.m. on August 20, UFC President Dana White was probably rueing this decision.

UFC 278 took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, at an elevation of over 1,200 meters. Earlier in the night, bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili, nicknamed The Machine because of his incredible cardio, spent 15 minutes clinching with Jose Aldo looking for a takedown, and after the final bell, Aldo immediately lay flat on his back gasping for air. In the co-main event the flashy, explosive duo of Luke Rockhold and Paulo Costa spent large chunks of their bout panting with their hands on their knees.

The thin air literally and figuratively sucking the life out of genuinely exciting fighters set a very bad precedent for the show's finale.

So it was a shock to everyone when Rocky Edwards became the first man to get a takedown on Usman at the end of Round 1. Even though they're both billed as 6'0 even by the UFC, Edwards clearly towers over Usman and, when the champ had underhooks in, Rocky surprised him with a leg sweep and took control on the ground.

The bell rang as he was fighting to secure a choke and for the first time in a long time, Usman had lost a round, and he’d done it in a style nobody had seen before. The upset was on.

Until it wasn't.

In the second round, Usman fought in the way that had brought him so many wins. From a high guard position, he pushed Edwards back against the cage where he unloaded punch combinations until a takedown position became available. Any time Edwards, aptly called a "sniper" by commentator Jon Anik, got one good strike in return, the champion would back off out of range, reset and start his grind again.

It's quite safe and very boring but it has brought Usman wins and championships, so he executed this plan over and over and over. Round 2 became Round 3; Round 3 became Round 4. The crowd were quiet.

"He's been broken," said ringside analyst Din Thomas of Edwards at the start of Round 5. It wasn't just that his significant strikes had dropped to single digits but Thomas said that, between rounds, Edwards wasn't looking his coaches in the eye. This was a surefire sign that he was losing and couldn't figure out a method to win.

Usman was now coasting, clearly up 3-1 on the scorecards. He was jabbing, clinching, generally pawing at Edwards, knowing all he had to do was run the clock down to get a win. And then with less than 60 seconds remaining, southpaw Edwards feinted a jab from his power hand and, knowing Usman would dodge to the outside as he’d done all fight, turned it into a headkick and caught the champion right on the temple.

The sniper found his target and Kamaru Usman, for the first time in his entire fighting career, went out cold. Referee Herb Dean called an end to the fight as soon as he landed on the canvas. Nothing else was needed.

Leon Edwards pulled off the greatest Rocky story of his career and in doing so not only became UFC welterweight champion, he solved the Kamaru Usman problem.

(Cover: Referee Herb Dean raises Leon Edwards' hand as UFC President Dana White put the UFC welterweight championship around his waist following his win over Kamaru Usman in the main event of UFC 278 at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., August 20, 2022. /Zuffa)