"Putting bounties on me" - Kamaru Usman stunned as Joaquin Buckley reveals top UFC brass incentivized him to chase KO at UFC Atlanta

Kamaru Usman was a bit taken aback that one of the higher-ups within the UFC told Joaquin Buckley that he would be making an ample amount of additional money if the latter had knocked out the former last weekend.

Usman would end up defeating Buckley on points at UFC Atlanta, and the two fighters appeared on a podcast together after their clash.

Appearing on Usman's podcast Pound 4 Pound that he co-hosts with Henry Cejudo, Buckley mentioned that Hunter Campbell told him that he would be making 'something nice' if he halted Usman.

Buckley was playfully commenting that he would have used that money to build a gym and get a mansion set up if he were to have separated the former UFC welterweight champion from consciousness on June 14.

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During the back-and-forth verbal exchange between the two UFC Atlanta headliners, Kamaru Usman said:

"Damn. So Hunter [is] putting bounties on me? Damn, Hunter. Oh hell no... Hunter Campbell, I know."

Check out the exchange between Usman and Buckley post-UFC Atlanta below:

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Kamaru Usman explains why he did not try to KO Buckley late in their fight

Kamaru Usman seemed to be operating on a bit of a different frequency than Joaquin Buckley, with the former admitting that he wasn't actively pursuing the knockout in the later stages of their fight.

After securing his first victory in four years, Usman notably brought back a strong wrestling approach to his fighting methodology, but his patience from past experiences paid dividends as well.

The 38-year-old was up on the scorecards of the cage-side judges until the fifth and final frame, where Buckley rallied and generated a torrent of strikes directed toward Usman.

During an interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN where he described how the mindset and temperament in that last stanza against Buckley was informed by flashbacks to Leon Edwards, Kamaru Usman stated:

"I'm not even going to lie to you, the last minute [felt long]. There was a minute in my head where I was like 'He's throwing so hard, that you can catch him and knock him out, right now'. What a statement that would be. You can knock him out right now!" "Then I remembered the last time I had that thought. Round 5, Salt Lake City, Utah, Leon Edwards. 'He's broken! You can knock him out right now!' There's a minute left... and I'm like 'Yeah, I know I can knock him out. But let's go ahead and use this footwork' [laughs]."

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Edited by Tejas Rathi