Kamaru Usman isn’t proud of the narrative that he shied away from dealing with Shavkat Rakhmonov.
When Rakhmonov (15-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) misplaced out on his title battle towards welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in Saturday’s essential occasion at T-Cell Enviornment in Las Vegas, “Nomad” known as for Usman as a alternative.
Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) stated he was doubtlessly going to slip into the battle, nevertheless it was Ian Machado Garry (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) that ended up stepping in to face Rakhmonov in a five-round co-main occasion (pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).
“I’m seeing on-line individuals go, ‘Oh, you scared? You ducked him?’ Like, what? This is similar sentiment that I really feel like individuals are doing to Jon Jones,” Usman stated on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “It’s identical to when individuals, the place your followers, or followers of a fighter, don’t get their desired want that they need, ‘That’s the battle I need,’ then it’s like, ‘Oh, no, that man have to be scared as a result of he didn’t take the battle.’ Like guys, shut up!
“We step in there each time. I’ve (24) fights. World champion and defended belts time and time once more, ‘Oh, he’s scared.’ Yeah, shut up. Simply since you didn’t get what you needed? Guess what, it’s like your mother telling you, ‘No, you’ll be able to’t have that toy at present.’ , ‘You may’t have that toy so shut your mouth.’ As an alternative, we’ve bought a banging battle. We’ve bought Shavkat Rakhmonov taking over Ian Garry.”
Usman’s most up-to-date outing was on brief discover towards one other undefeated phenom in middleweight contender Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in October 2023. The previous UFC welterweight champion pushed Chimaev to the brink in a majority choice loss. Whereas he was champion, Usman additionally accepted a battle with Jorge Masvidal on six days’ discover in July 2020 at UFC 251.
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