Kamaru Usman and Shavkat Rakhmonov have shared a health club, however that doesn’t imply they will’t share the octagon on battle evening.
UFC 310 continues to be in flux with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad having withdrawn from the scheduled fundamental occasion after struggling a foot an infection. Muhammad was to defend his title towards Rakhmonov and it’s not but identified if their battle will likely be rescheduled or if a brand new opponent will likely be discovered for Rakhmonov to remain on the Dec. 7 card.
Ought to the matchmakers want an elite identify to step into Muhammad’s spot, Usman is prepared for the decision, even when it means squaring off with a fighter he’s usually seen in the identical coaching house.
“To start with, let me make clear one thing: We’re not teammates,” Usman stated on his Pound-4-Pound podcast. “He is available in and trains in my health club the place I used to be for many of my profession till the final 4 or 5 years, which I’m nonetheless in that health club. That’s [Henry Hooft’s] health club, Kill Cliff now could be the identify, however he’s not my teammate per se.
“But when the UFC’s going to name who they assume goes to be legit robust sufficient and man sufficient to step in there, is loopy sufficient to step in there on brief discover and go on the market and probably shock the world, positively the UFC know who to name when that state of affairs occurs. And in the event that they do give me a name, I’m going to reply the decision, we’ll get a few issues straight and if we’ve acquired to do it, we’ve acquired to do it. I don’t draw back from any of that. I’ve finished it on six days’ discover. I’ve finished it on eight days’ discover and hey, that is solely a few weeks’ discover.”
Usman is at present on a three-fight skid and has been affected person with looking for his subsequent opponent. Most not too long ago, he misplaced a majority choice to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in a middleweight bout that he accepted on brief discover. Previous to that, he misplaced back-to-back title fights towards rival Leon Edwards and is now winless since November 2021.
There was no love misplaced between Usman and Muhammad and whereas that’s a matchup he’s additionally focused, he hopes Muhammad is given correct time to recuperate and suffers no longterm detrimental results from his toe an infection.
“That’s my private perception, I do typically assume he does act like a dork, however Belal, he’s a person,” Usman stated. “He’s a person on the identical time. He’s a competitor, he’s a fighter, and I’d by no means need to see that occur to anybody. I’ve handled sequence of sequence of accidents and it’s by no means enjoyable, particularly when that is our livelihood. That is how he feeds his household, so I’d by no means, ever need one thing like that to occur. So hope for a speedy restoration for Mr. Belal Muhammad.”
