Kamaru Usman and Joe Rogan laugh off the internet's brutal memes of them

Kamaru Usman has admitted he sees the funny side of all the brutal memes that came his way after getting KO'd by Leon Edwards.

The former welterweight champion was just one minute away from successfully retaining his title at UFC 278 before a head kick in the dying embers of the bout knocked Usman into the Shadow Realm.

As the aptly-named 'Rocky' wheeled away in celebration, Usman lay lifeless on the canvas, staring up into the sky with his eyes wide open.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for social media sleuths to start churning out some hilarious memes aimed at Usman.

And, if truth be told, some of them were pure genius – and even Usman admits it too.

"My eyes were open, which is weird," he explained on UFC commentator Joe Rogan's podcast.

"People would screen grab that and make a fake page with that as the avatar. For them to take time out of their day, I'm like 's**t I'm special'.

"They think that it bothers me, but it's funny to me – it made me laugh."

Rogan then chimed in, adding: "Did you see the photo of me interviewing you in the middle of the head kick? That was hilarious."

To which Usman replied: "I almost posted that yesterday! I'm gonna post it. Joe's gotta get that interview."

The two then laughed uncontrollably, clearly amused by the content.

To most high-profile celebs, they probably hate all the memes made about them after one tiny slip-up in the public eye – but not Usman, he sees the funny side of it.

To be fair, it's a classy response from a very classy former champ.

If there's a proper way of taking a loss, this is it.

The ex-pound-for-pound king then went on to describe how he only properly came-to when he was in the back of an ambulance heading to the hospital, despite completely waking up and talking to coaches and family members in the arena.

"Leon gave me like a 20 minute nap", Usman joked.

Interestingly enough, upon reflection, Usman revealed that he got a sense of 'relief' after the defeat.

"It's weird to really explain, but you get to a certain point where people start putting expectations in you, 'you're gonna do this, you're gonna do that, you're gonna become this', to where I didn't get in to all of that," he explained.

“I was never attached to the title. Now as weird as it sounds, I wasn’t attached to it. It wasn’t like oh I’m the champion, I gotta hold onto it” 

“…I’ve said it before and I continue to say it, In my head each and every time I was fighting for the title or defending that belt, I was fighting for the title. I was the contender in my head.”