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Kamaru Usman has been in some very heated rivalries during his UFC career, but he wouldn’t put Belal Muhammad in that same category.
Despite plenty of back-and-forth through interviews, podcasts, and social media, the former UFC welterweight champion downplayed any real animosity towards Muhammad when addressing a potential fight between them. While Muhammad already mentioned his interest in fighting Usman as he looks to get back into the title picture following a loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315, the “Nigerian Nightmare” didn’t return the favor when addressing the matchup during UFC Atlanta media day on Wednesday.
“Now here’s the thing, when Belal Muhammad was champion, there was a reason to fight Belal Muhammad,” Usman said. “He had the title. Let’s be honest here, we’re not the best of friends, but I don’t wish him any bad. He’s my Muslim brother, so I don’t wish him any bad.
“But what do you have to offer me? You going to give me a side deal? You going to throw me a little extra cash on the side? If he’s willing to do that, maybe. But who knows? I hope he’s recovering well. That was a tough loss. Hopefully, he bounces back.”
A huge part of the interest in Usman facing Muhammad also stems from a notorious podcast episode they filmed together that never ended up airing publicly. The animosity between them during recording apparently reached a fevered pitch with Usman’s co-host Henry Cejudo claiming “hands were thrown, slaps were given.”
Usman didn’t address the podcast episode, but he said from his side of things, he has no animosity towards Muhammad now.
After getting into some very ugly exchanges with Colby Covington and sharing a rivalry with Jorge Masvidal a few years back, Usman just doesn’t put his fracas with Muhammad on the same level.
“There was never bad blood,” Usman said. “That was never really the case. If you look at the history, you look at myself and Colby Covington, that rivalry, which it’s over with, Colby is Colby, but that story, there was things that are lined up there with that one. With Belal, no, it’s just a guy in the division that did well, eventually became champion, and then once he became champion, you really start to hear his voice a little bit more.
“At times, he was a little bit annoying, but that was pretty much it. There’s no necessarily bad blood between me and Belal. It is what it is. I wish him well. If I’m champion, I’m sure he’s going to want to fight me. If he’s champion, I’m going to want to compete against him for sure.”
First things first, Usman has to get through Buckley at UFC Atlanta in his first fight back in nearly two years.
He’s returning after a long layoff, but Usman says the time away was very beneficial to him, especially as he was finally able to heal up some nagging injuries.
“Just being in a place where you have an opportunity to kind of heal some injuries, you have the opportunity to take some time off,” Usman said. “I was pretty active there for ‘X’ number of years, even as a champion, so you get to a place where it’s like maybe we can take a breath here and see what’s next.”
Perhaps the biggest question surrounding his health centers around Usman’s knees, which almost became a running joke during his time off from the sport.
He doesn’t discount that he’s had issues with his knees in the past, but Usman says he was actually at a much worse spot when he first joined the UFC back in 2015 than he is ahead of his 19th fight with the organization.
“I’m good. Really, really, I’m good,” Usman said. “It’s funny because that’s a running knock — knees, knees, knees! They don’t realize [my] knees were [actually] worse in my first fight in the UFC. My first fight, I was coming in right off the back of a microfracture surgery. Doctors say that’s about an eight-month recovery, and I fought four months after the surgery. I don’t think people realize that it was worse before.
“I know it’s a running joke, everyone likes to joke about it but I’ve been beating people’s asses with [these] knees. So it is what it is. They can say whatever they want. Saturday, we’re going to get in there, he’s going to punch me, I’m going to punch him, and we’re going to see who wins.”
Now at full health with two functioning knees, Usman isn’t just coming back with hopes that he can beat Buckley and then just take on whoever the UFC throws at him.
Instead, Usman insists that he’s still chasing championships, and he’s actually got a pretty ambitious plan when it comes to his future in the sport.
“Being 100 percent honest, I mean absolutely. Of course, we want to be champions. If you don’t want to be champion, what are you doing?” Usman said. “My path there? Pretty simple. I just laid out the map right here — finish Buckley this weekend and then wait for the winner of I believe Islam [Makhachev] and JDM (Jack Della Maddelana), which I believe is going to be an incredible fight. Such a great thing now having Islam come up now into the division. Who wouldn’t buy a ticket to that? Former pound-for-pound and current pound-for-pound? I love Islam. Islam’s a great fighter. I think that’s something we would both remember forever.
“Win that and go ahead and probably vacate, go up [to middleweight], myself and Dricus du Plessis if he is the champion, or Khamzat Chimaev 2, if Dricus is no longer the champion. If Dricus is the champion, we do that in the first card in Africa. That’s another blockbuster. These are back-to-back blockbuster fights that you tell your grandkids about. Who wouldn’t watch those? Then after that, now you’re sitting with two belts, and it’s like, what do we do next? That’s long-term goal in the back of my mind.”
