Former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman returns to the octagon on June 14, headlining UFC on ESPN 69 against Joaquin Buckley.
“The Nigerian Nightmare” last fought in October 2023 in a short notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294. After the time off, Usman’s ready to get back at it. Buckley’s next unless Usman runs into champion Belal Muhammad first.
“Belal’s a guy that I never really – He was always around and I never really paid attention to because I was doing what I needed to do to. I was always fighting the next guy up, the next guy up. I didn’t really pay attention to Belal,” Usman told ESPN.
“Now that I’m forced to actually look at Belal, he’s not bad. He’s just good everywhere. That’s been working. That’s worked for him. He’s not bad. I’m never in any way discrediting that. I think once I was forced to pay attention to him, I started to kind of see the antics that goes on outside of the cage. And I was never that guy. If I was champion and the next guy up started barking at me then, of course, I would respond. Alright. Then we’d get in there and settle it.
“Belal just seems to be a different type of champion who’s willing to make memes, he’s willing to get on Twitter, social media, because he wants the attention,” Usman continued.
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Usman invited Muhammad to appear on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast and Muhammad accepted the offer. The segment hasn’t been released but the two reportedly came to blows in the studio.
“He craves that attention. Even if you’re a lightweight, even if you’re a guy that’s a flyweight who’s not in the division, he’s willing to have that back-and-forth with you,” Usman said. “And for me, I just find it a little bit distasteful, and I wasn’t a part of it And once he became champion, he started to come at me with that energy. I was like, ‘Oh, you have a problem with me? Well, if you have a problem, I don’t really play the internet game. Let’s talk it out.’ So we invited him on the podcast, and it went how it went. That’s all I could say. Eventually, hopefully we’ll release that podcast because he was only there for maybe like 10 minutes. It wasn’t really long, and then it was over and he left.”
Muhammad left but that wasn’t the end of their feud. When asked if security would have to intervene if the two ran into each other, Usman replied, “Probably.”
