Kamaru Usman thinks another fight with Khamzat Chimaev would play out much differently.
An all-time great at welterweight, the former UFC Champion decided to double down at middleweight last October. Usman accepted a call on extremely short-notice to face off against promotional boogeyman Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294.
Usman ‘Caught Off Guard’ By Fighting 3 Rounds
Unfortunately for Usman, the judges didn’t see enough from him over the three-round distance as he suffered his third loss in a row, second-straight by majority decision. Still though, Usman put up a great fight against Chimaev (who dealt with a hand injury mid-fight), so there’s definitely a possibility that we’ll see the two fighters collide down the line.
‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ prefers to fight Chimaev over 5 rounds instead of the standard 3, which could make it a bad dream for the undefeated, highly-touted star.
“Khamzat Chimaev on 9, 10 days notice, fly across the world with no training camp, and go out there and and made it look like that. Give me 2 more rounds, that’s a whole different fight,” Usman said on his new podcast, ‘Pound 4 Pound‘.
“I thought to myself, I’m a championship level fighter. I’ve been fighting championship fights for over 4 and a half, 5 years. To switch up like that on 9 days notice to fight 3 rounds, I kinda got caught off guard with the pacing of the fight. I started off late and by starting off late, it caught me because it’s after 3 rounds.”
Usman Almost Did What?
Usman apparently had more to give in the Octagon after the final bell had rung.
“The crazy thing is after the fight, I almost wanted to, because I remember back in the day, there’d be fighters that would do push-ups after the fight just to show that, ‘Oh, I’m not tired’. For some weird ass reason. It came to my head to do my pushups,” Usman said with a laugh.
Kamaru Usman on his fight against Khamzat Chimaev:
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 29, 2024
“Give me 2 more rounds, that’s a whole different fight.
I’m a championship level fighter, I’ve been fighting championship fights for over 5 years. To switch up like that on 9 days notice and fight 3 rounds, I got caught off… pic.twitter.com/IY3PbdfYzJ
The former champ’s conquest for middleweight gold proved to be unsuccessful at UFC 294. In the lead-up, UFC CEO Dana White did market Chimaev vs. Usman as a potential title eliminator with middleweight champ Sean Strickland waiting in the wings.
Of course, we all know how that plan went… a more deserving Dricus Du Plessis (who TKO’ed Robert Whittaker) would end up getting the title shot at UFC 297 instead of Chimaev. Read how Chimaev handled that, here.
Having ‘No Desire’ To Fight Israel Adesanya Back When He Ruled
Usman might be disappointed his dreams of middleweight royalty didn’t come true, but at least it didn’t come at the expense of dethroning then-champ and good friend Israel Adesanya.
“It stings that I didn’t become double champion, but it doesn’t sting that I didn’t go up to fight Israel. I stand by it,” Usman added. “I just genuinely had no desire to be the reason why or the potential reason why Israel, another Nigerian, was not a UFC champion. I just couldn’t, had no interest in that. Not to say I was just gonna beat him up or or whatever, but I just had no interest in being the reason why he potentially was not another Nigerian UFC champion.
“But had it been Sean Strickland, 1000%, I was moving up. I think Sean Strickland has definitely improved, he’s tough.”
Kamaru Usman holds a victory over Sean Strickland which came by way of unanimous decision at UFC 210 in 2017.
