Kamaru Usman is picking his fights carefully, and he hopes fans understand why.
If they don’t, he has some not-so-friendly advice for them.
The former UFC welterweight champion recently stated that he was available to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 after Rakhmonov was originally scheduled to fight current titleholder Belal Muhammad. “Remember the Name” was forced to bow out of Saturday’s card with an injury, leaving a vacant spot on the promotion’s final pay-per-view of 2024, and Usman said he would be fine with fighting Rakhmonov on short notice even though they have trained at the same gym.
Ian Machado Garry eventually got the call to fight Rakhmonov, and apparently Usman has received some flack from fans for his decision. On his Pound-4-Pound podcast, he responded to the criticism.
“This is an intriguing fight,” Usman said. “This is a fight that I was potentially going to slide into. I’ve touched on this a million times, which is crazy to me because I’m seeing online people like, ‘Aw, you scared? You ducking? You ducking? You scared? You scared?’ What?
“I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ This is the same sentiment that I feel like people are doing to Jon Jones. It’s just like when people, where you’re fans or fans of a fighter don’t get their desired wish that they want, ‘That’s the fight I want,’ then it’s like, ‘That guy must be scared because he didn’t take the fight.’ Like, guys, shut up. Shut up. We step in there each and every time—I have 22 or 25 fights, I don’t know how many fights, but you think everyone, ‘Oh, you scared.’ World champion and defending belts time and time again, ‘Oh, he’s scared.’ Shut up. Just because you didn’t get what you wanted. Guess what, it’s like your mom telling you, ‘No, you can’t have that toy today.’ So shut your mouth.”
Usman has not fought since UFC 294 in October 2023. At that event, Usman went up a weight class for a short-notice bout with the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev. After a slow start, Usman rebounded to give Chimaev a tough contest, though he went on to lose by majority decision.
It’s unclear what Usman’s next move will be as he looks to end a three-fight losing streak (that includes two title fight losses to Leon Edwards), but he sees a path where he eventually shares the octagon with Rakhmonov or Garry.
“Honestly, putting on my professional hat, I can see a world where Ian Garry gets this one done, but I don’t really care much for both guys so I don’t really care,” Usman said. “I’m not picking. Whoever it is, at some point I’m going to have to see and I’m going to have to do what I do, but I don’t really care. But I can see a world where Ian gets it done. Shavkat is very good and very dangerous, but I can see a world where Ian gets it done.”
Usman refrained from picking a winner for the UFC 310 co-main event. However, he warned that the highly anticipated battle of undefeated welterweights might not live up to the hype from an entertainment standpoint.
“I’m not hating in any way, shape, form, or fashion, I love the fight on paper, but I don’t think it’s going to be as exciting as people think,” Usman said. “People are expecting blood and this and that. I don’t think it’s going to be that because Ian Garry is a smart fighter that’s willing to just dance around for 30 minutes. He’s going to dance around. He’s willing to do that in order to crate the space that he wants in order to try to land his strikes.
“Shavkat, not necessarily. Shavkat’s going to play the game with you for a little bit, but Shavkat at some point is going to want to get going, so if Ian doesn’t want to get going, we know it takes two to tango. If Ian doesn’t want to get going, that fight might not be the bloodbath that everybody’s expecting, everybody’s craving and going ‘ooh aah,’ but on paper I think it’s a fantastic fight and somebody’s O has got to go.”
