Kamaru
Usman doesn’t consider the
UFC’s BMF belt to be a real title.
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The BMF title has recently attracted attention after current BMF
champ Max
Holloway was knocked out for the first time in his career in a
failed title bid against featherweight champ Ilia
Topuria at UFC 308
last weekend. While Holloway’s BMF strap was not on the line, “El
Matador” was seen carrying the BMF belt along with his
featherweight gold strap after the fight. UFC CEO Dana White also
said that midway through the fight he was wondering why he didn’t
put the BMF title on the line as well.
However, former middleweight champ Usman believes the BMF title
isn’t worth this much discussion. According to “The Nigerian
Nightmare,” the BMF belt is a hypothetical championship that was
made because of him. Jorge
Masvidal became the first BMF champ with a doctor stoppage win
over Nate
Diaz at UFC 244 in 2019. According to Usman, he was originally
supposed to defend his welterweight title for the first time
against Colby
Covington at UFC 244 in Madison Square Garden. Usman claims the
UFC made up BMF title for Masvidal and Diaz, as headlining MSG
without a title fight wouldn’t make sense.
“Why are we talking about this like this is a real title? It’s
not,” Usman said on the Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry
Cejudo. “This was a hypothetical that was made up because of
me… Myself and Covington were supposed to fight in MSG in New
York. The fight didn’t happen. They needed a fight to headline that
card. They needed something with some steam. It’s MSG. You can’t
just put any fight card at MSG. You gotta come correct when you go
to MSG. So, at that point, what’s the hottest ticket out there?
Yes, Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal… And of course, you have Nate Diaz with
his mystique that he always carries, it’s Nate Diaz…
Dana jumps on, ‘How do we promote this fight? Let’s create this, al
lright, it’s called the baddest motherf’er belt…’ Come on. Are
you serious? That’s why it started.”
Usman went on to defend his strap against Covington via technical
knockout at UFC 245 in December 2019, setting off a dominant title
reign that ended with another successful defence against “Chaos” at
UFC 268 in 2021. Usman has since gone on a three-fight slump that
includes consecutive title losses against Leon
Edwards followed by a majority decision loss against Khamzat
Chimaev at middleweight.
Usman also noted that all three BMF champs in UFC history —
Masvidal, Justin
Gaethje and Holloway — went on to lose their next fights via
knockout.