Phenom Kamaru Usman Is Ready for His Close-Up at UFC Fight Night 129

Pro wrestling fans will recognize it in a heartbeat.

When Kamaru Usman brings all of his talent and all of his personality into the cage Saturday at UFC Fight Night 129, there will be a special kind of dynamic. This is a big fight for the welterweight division, but there's something more on the line.

Usman is 31 years old but still fairly new to MMA. His 12-1 record, including a 7-0 mark in the UFC, landed him here, in his first Octagonal main event. His opponent, the legendary but aging Demian Maia, would appear to be lining up across from Usman for one reason and one reason only.

He's going to put Usman over. 

In the unlikely event you're unfamiliar with that phrase, it basically involves one high-profile player losing to an up-and-comer as a way of fast-tracking said up-and-comer to star status. It's a transfer of power that the older star can provide before he begins to fade.

In pro wrestling, you can just write it into the script. In the UFC, they do it with canny matchmaking—or maybe just dumb luck. Either way, here we are.

Usman jumped from prospect to phenom to main-eventer in pretty short order. The Nigerian Nightmare moved to the United States when he was eight years old, took up wrestling not long after and eventually won a D-II national title. That's the base of his MMA game.

But don't let that take you to The Boring Place in your head. Usman is a juggernaut. He just throws people around in the cage. In his last bout, a decision win over Emil Meek, he landed eight takedowns. He can do it in open space or he can smush you against the chain link and take it from there. His top control is horrendous, in a good way. Some fighters just know how to break people, and Usman is one of those.

On the feet he's less developed, but his striking gets better each time. As with wrestling, his punching power is obscene, as evidenced by his six knockout victories. He's no longer with Florida's Blackzilians outfit, but he still trains with Dutch legend Henri Hooft, meaning Usman's striking is a straight kickboxing recipe.

None of this is to say he's a perfect fighter. He's not overly polished on the feet and he can be predictable. He's also not overly defensive-minded, relying on his power and his chin to carry him out of bad situations. So far, that has worked. It won't forever.

In recent months, striking sensation Israel Adesanya (and, for arguably the wrong reasons, Colby Covington) have stolen UFC headlines for their brash and quotable demeanors. Usman is right there with them. 

"Listen, anybody in that welterweight division that think they want this, you know you don't because I'm a problem. I'm a problem in this division," Usman said after a first-round knockout of Sergio Moraes in September. "Anybody. Who wants this fight?"

To hear Team Usman tell it, nobody did (including Covington, language NSFW), until Brazilian berserker Santiago Ponzinibbio stepped up for UFC Fight Night 129. The plan fell apart, however, when Ponzinibbio pulled out in April. 

In comes Maia to save the day, and therein starts the real story.

For Usman, this matchup is significantly better. Maia is a bigger name and an easier fight. That must be why Usman has been calling out Maia for two years now.

Maia (25-8) relies on takedowns, back-taking and chokeouts to win. That has worked. He's one of the best jiu-jitsu players in the history of the world. He's one of the great gentlemen of MMA, and he has all kinds of guts to take this fight on four weeks' notice.

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

All indications are that he'll be a duck on the pond on Saturday night. Last summer against welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, and again last fall with Covington, Maia was revealed as someone who has trouble with power wrestlers.

He's not a big guy. If he can't get you down, he quickly runs out of options and can be smothered, pushed around or outstruck. It was literally impossible against Woodley and almost as bad with Covington. According to UFC stat keeper FightMetric, he was 0-21 on takedown attempts against the champ and 0-13 against Covington.

Gulp.

All of this stuff is fixable theoretically. But not when you're 40 years old, and not on four weeks' notice.

There's a reason Usman is a whopping minus-750 favorite to defeat Maia on Saturday, according to OddsShark. This is easily the biggest fight of Usman's career, and he's shown both the talent and desire to succeed in all his fights before this. 

Even if the UFC fell upwards into this matchup, they'll reap the rewards, as will Usman. Don't think for one second he'll squander that post-fight interview, either.

Maia is still a highly regarded fighter—No. 5 in the UFC's official welterweight rankings. If he does fall to Usman, it won't be in vain, and one of the UFC's glamor divisions will have itself a new top-fiver and a welcome transfusion of new blood.