Kamaru Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz recently floated the possibility that the welterweight champion could still enter into a superfight with fellow Nigerian and middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya, but it seems the fighter himself isn’t on-board with the idea.
“I’ve said it before, as long as Israel Adesanya is the champion, I have no interest in going there,” Usman told Jim Rome. “But when Jan Blachowicz was the champion at light heavyweight, of course, I thought it was a great matchup.
“I’m not saying I would just demolish the whole light heavyweight division. I’m saying I thought that was a great matchup, and I thought that I would have been a two-time champion, and skipping middleweight and becoming the light heavyweight champion.”
That being said, Usman did admit that if Dana White offered them an astronomical amount of money to fight then he’d have to consider it.
“I’ve said it before, Adesanya’s a fellow Nigerian. A good guy. I like him, I like his approach. I’ve said it — I’d rather two Nigerians have belts than one Nigerian with two belts.
“If Dana [White] is willing to sit us down and say, $100 million, ‘Hey guys, let’s split this up,’ at that point Israel and I would have to talk. Because at that point, my little brother, my blood brother, we would have to talk and say, ‘Hey, let’s go out here and make this money.’”
On the other hand, Usman is more than willing to face rising star Khamzat Chimaev, but only when he’s beaten other top contenders that would lay the foundation for a title opportunity against him.
“There’s a reason there’s a structure to get here,” Usman said. “So he’s done great with the opposition that he’s been presented, and by the time he gets here, once he gets here, of course we’ll have that conversation. But I am the champion. I am the pound-for-pound best in the world. I am the king of the castle. Everybody wants a piece of me. So that’s good. I like that.
“There was a time when I was coming up and I just couldn’t get those fights, I couldn’t get the next guy to step in there with me. But now that I’m at the top, I don’t have to do that. These guys have to call me out and these guys have to come to me. When they make it up here, I’ll be here waiting.”
