Belal Muhammad recently secured the welterweight title against Leon Edwards at UFC 304. Subsequently, former champion Kamaru Usman recently revealed that he was ready to fight ‘Remember The Name’. Moreover, he was extremely confident that he would win back the title. However, he is not ready to fight right away.
Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo recently discussed the welterweight title showdown at UFC 304. During the conversation on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Usman gave his statement on potentially stepping up against Belal Muhammad.
You want the Nigerian Nightmare Kamaru Usman? Give me ample time to get in there. At the end of the year, top of next year, I’ll go in there and I take my welterweight strap back, one hundred percent.
Kamaru Usman on the Pound 4 Pound podcast
Usman has fought Leon Edwards thrice in the promotion. He lost the last two times, but Usman argued that people forgot he was winning almost throughout that fight. That was until the Brit landed that kick in the final at UFC 278 and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ lost his title. They fought again at UFC 286 and Usman lost by majority decision.
Kamaru Usman says that if it were up to him, he’d fight Belal Muhammad for the belt at the end of the year.
However “to satisfy everybody” he says it’s more realistic that he fights one more time before fighting for the belt.
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He believes the title win spoiled Edwards and he forgot to fix his shortcomings as a grappler and paid the price at UFC 304. Belal Muhammad dumped Leon Edwards on his head and went the entire distance to ultimately walk away with the unanimous decision victory and the welterweight title.
Kamaru Usman is unhappy with Dana White
Kamaru Usman has not fought in a while. He made a short-notice appearance against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 and lost via majority decision. However, he is yet to make his official comeback to the welterweight division where he reigns as the #1 ranked contender.
Dana White removes high performance bonuses (Image via Imago)But in the meantime, Dana White made a big decision that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is “salty” about. The UFC CEO declared at the post-fight press conference that he would no longer increase the fight bonuses to the hundreds of thousands of dollars they used to be.
And I am a little salty I’ll tell you that right now. I’m a little salty so Dana please please, I know you are upset with what happened but hey. Just wait around for me you know just wait around for when I jump back in there. You spike it on for time for me and that’s that.
Kamaru Usman on the Pound 4 Pound podcast
The reason Dana White withdrew the bonuses was because he was disappointed with the performances at UFC 304. White said it did not look like higher bonuses made any of the contenders fight any harder. At UFC 304, Tom Aspinall and Mick Parkin got $100K bonuses each while Paddy Pimblett walked away with the biggest bonus of $200,000 for his win against Bobby Green.
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