UFC: Kamaru Usman reveals light heavyweight title – ‘I’m pound-for-pound, I want to prove it’
- UFC welterweight champion claims he considered moving up two weight classes in 2021
- ‘I was going to skip Israel [Adesanya] and go fight Jan [Blachowicz] at 205 [pounds],’ he says
Kamaru Usman is the best pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts today, and he is willing to go to extreme lengths to prove it.
In a recent interview with GQ, the reigning UFC welterweight champion divulged that he briefly considered moving up two divisions to challenge Jan Blachowicz for light heavyweight gold last year.
The impetus, he explained, was not only to avoid fighting his friend and fellow Nigerian Israel Adesanya, who rules over the middleweight division, but to reaffirm himself as the best fighter in the sport, regardless of weight class.
“I was going to skip Israel and go fight Jan at 205 [pounds],” 34-year-old Usman (20-1) said. “Because I’m pound-for-pound, I want to prove it. No matter what weight it is, I thought he was a really good match-up for me.”
The 38-year-old Pole Blachowicz (28-9), who would have outweighed Usman by something in the area of 40 pounds, has since surrendered the light heavyweight title, tapping to a Glover Teixeira rear-naked choke at UFC 267 in October. The new champ is now slated to defend his belt against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 274 on May 7.
Usman, then, will not have the chance to challenge for light heavyweight gold any time soon – and is not likely to have been allowed to do so by the UFC anyway.
Instead, “The Nigerian Nightmare” is set to stay in his native division for the time being. Since winning the welterweight title with a lopsided decision defeat of Tyron Woodley in March 2019, he has defended it four times, defeating Jorge Masvidal (twice), Gilbert Burns, and Colby Covington (twice).