Kamaru
Usman recently shared his version of the infamous podcast fight
with Belal
Muhammad.
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Usman and Muhammad have not been on the best of terms, often
feuding on social media. Regardless, Dominance MMA head Ali
Abdelaziz set up Muhammad as a guest on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast
co-hosted by Usman and Henry
Cejudo.
While there was hope that Muhammad and Usman would bury the
hatchet, things instead got heated between the two. While the
podcast hasn’t been released, reports of the incident continue to
surface. Sharing his version, Usman hinted that Muhammad’s
championship reign got into his head and made him say things that
he found offensive. However, “The Nigerian Nightmare” would have
preferred for things to have turned out differently. Usman also
wished Muhammad hadn’t lost his title against Jack
Della Maddalena, as he would have liked to fight “Remember the
Name.”
“When you become champion, it validates a lot of different things
for you that maybe only you are able to see at one point,” Usman
told Shakeil Mahjouri. “And I think that’s what it did for him. But
in that process he was just doing and saying a couple of things
that were distasteful for me. He was on the podcast and we
attempted to have a conversation about it. But it unfortunately
didn’t go the way I think either of us would have liked. At least
not on my part… It’s unfortunate that he lost the title. Because
that would have been a great fight between myself and
Muhammad.”
Muhammad previously claimed that he was talking about being a champ when Usman brought up
his own title reign.. Things escalated when Muhammad reminded
Usman that he was no longer the champ and also taunted him about
the head kick loss to Leon
Edwards. Cejudo later claimed that the scrap turned physical, and he
had to intervene along with the production crew.
Muhammad’s title reign ended with an upset loss against Maddalena
at UFC 315. Meanwhile, Usman is on a three-fight skid, which
includes consecutive title losses against Edwards followed by a
middleweight loss against Khamzat
Chimaev. The former welterweight champ returns to action
against Joaquin
Buckley (21-6) in the main event at UFC
Atlanta this weekend at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta,
Georgia.