UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman undergoes hernia surgery

New UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman went under the knife recently to fix a double hernia, one of several injuries.

Following his welterweight title victory at UFC 235, Kamaru Usman has put a focus on repairing injuries that have built up and has undergone surgery, according to his manager Ali Abdelaziz. Usman’s surgery in Philadelphia on March 12 was focused on a double hernia, according to MMAJunkie.

“I had knee surgery before, I thought this was going to be like that,” Usman said on an Instagram live feed following the surgery. “This ain’t that at all – at all. This [expletive] different.”

Following UFC 235, it was revealed Usman entered his title fight with Tyron Woodley hurt, fracturing his foot and needing to use a walking boot during the week. Still, Usman proceeded to dominate Woodley in a fashion unseen by the MMA community, controlling the grappling and rocking him with hard shots throughout the five rounds for a one-sided unanimous decision win.

Usman also cited battling a damaged knee in his road to the gold.

“I’ve been on one leg for years now,” Usman said. “So to be able to open up and use my kicks will make me so much more dangerous, it wouldn’t even be fair once I start to use some of the weapons we work on. Once I go into these fights, and we have to go through the wringer to prepare for them, and we know I’m not 100 percent going in, winning is the most important thing and dominating is the most important thing, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

According to Abdelaziz, surgery is not needed on Usman’s knee right now.

Usman is expected to take a few weeks off to recover before gearing up for an eventual showdown with, in Usman’s words “you know who.” (Hint: It’s Colby Covington).