Kamaru Usman isn’t giving up on a potential fight against Canelo Alvarez.
A New Challenge
The UFC Welterweight Champion believes he will make the boxing match happen, one way or the other. Riding off a 15-fight win streak inside the UFC, the momentum has never been higher for Usman, who just beat Colby Covington at UFC 268.
He believes he has cleaned out the welterweight division and is looking for a new challenge. However, the challenge he wants, lies outside the Octagon.
Boxing Dreams
Usman has been teasing a crossover into the boxing world for quite some time now. He would hint at the move before his title defense in NYC and would go full-throttle with it following his fight against ‘Chaos.’
With Canelo Alvarez running out of big names to fight in boxing, Usman thinks the time is now for a match between the two kings.
“Canelo has essentially cleaned out the divisions that he’s been in, in boxing.” Usman said on The Full Send Podcast. “I’ve done the same. I don’t think in history there’s ever been two combat athletes for different sports at their prime, both pound for pound best in the world, compete together. I don’t think it’s ever been done.
“Canelo’s ran out of guys to fight. It’s just like, it’s not interesting. Like who would I pay to see you fight? He’s about to fight a guy at cruiserweight. The [opponent] has 14,000 Instagram followers.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWYTiayAlUc/
Why Not?
Usman, who bolsters almost 3 million followers on Instagram, believes he makes more sense for Canelo. The fight itself doesn’t make much sense, but it does make ‘cents’ in terms of potential eyeballs watching the superfight.
‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ has nothing to lose in a crossover, with Canelo having everything to lose. But in Usman’s eyes why would the boxer turn down an ‘easy’ fight against a non-boxer?
“Why wouldn’t you want to do that? If you know that you’re going to win anyways, you’re confident. Why wouldn’t you do it? When you’re going to get way more famous, you going to make way more money than you will ever make in every fight. Why would you not do it? Because you’re a little worried. You’re like, ah, you know what? Nah, let me just keep beating up these guys over here.”
“I’m willing to take the risk as a fighter. That’s the thing with MMA fighters. We are brave enough to say, f*ck, that’s dangerous, that’s scary, but we’re brave enough to where we’re going to go on your field. And we’re going to take that risk and challenge you guys. What boxer have you seen say, ‘you know what, fuck that, I’m going to go into MMA?’
MMA vs. Boxing
Only a few boxers have crossed over to MMA, with most of them not finding much success. James Toney would be submitted by Randy Couture in less than a round. Claressa Shields would be outclassed on the ground for her first two MMA fights as well, barely scraping a win in her debut.
MMA fighters have been more consistent in trying new endeavors outside their sport. Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren are some of the bigger names that come to mind in transitioning into the ring.
Usman joins the list, looking to put a stamp in combat sports history against the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world. Canelo isn’t too keen on fighting him however. Usman had some thoughts on this and how Canelo and others don’t do good for their legacies.
“Boxing of course has its history, a long history, but these guys are destroying it when they just don’t fight the biggest, baddest dude out there. They just hand pick. How is it [good] for your legacy when you’re picking and choosing the easiest guys.”
