Kamaru Usman News

Chris Taylor - May 19, 2018

A key welterweight fight between former title challenger Demian Maia and surging division contender Kamaru Usman served as the headliner of tonight’s UFC Fight Night 129 event in Chile. Round one begins and Kamaru Usman starts off quickly. He throws a jab and then another. Maia is circling looking for a way inside. Demian shoots in and secures a takedown. Usman immediately scrambles and is lucky to get back to his feet. Maia stays on him and ends up securing Usman in what looks like a standing twister position. Maia begins to throw some punches and suddenly the referee steps in and breaks up the fighters. That was an odd break up. Regardless we continue and Usman takes the center of the octagon. Kamaru with a jab. Maia answers with a left hand over the top. Maia circles along the cage. He fires off a left that misses. Usman lands a right and the horn sounds to end round one.

Drake Riggs - May 16, 2018

Ahead of #UFCChile, hear what Kamaru Usman (@USMAN84kg) said about the possibility of fighting Demian Maia – in 2016. "My style will trump his style. … I know that I can get him out of there."@DanTomMMA breaks down the fight: https://t.co/6MuEkJdLE0 pic.twitter.com/4ujn4sw477

Drake Riggs - April 26, 2018

Disaster struck for UFC Chile the past week when it lost it’s main and co-main events. The co-main was initially set to be Volkan Oezdemir vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua but was then moved to be the UFC Hamburg main event after some issues with Oezdemir’s visa came to light.

Chris Taylor - April 21, 2018

UFC Chile loses Kamaru Usman vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio main event! The octagon will invade Chile for the first time next month but the historic fight card is now without a main event.

Chris Taylor - April 7, 2018

VIDEO | Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington get in heated confrontation at UFC press conference UFC welterweight standouts Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington got in a heated confrontation at last night’s UFC press conference in Brooklyn.

Chris Taylor - April 1, 2018

Exclusive | Jorge Masvidal sends a strong message to Kamaru Usman! After putting together an impressive three fight win streak, which included stoppage victories over Jake Ellenberger and Donald Cerrone, Jorge Masvidal has since suffered back-to-back decision setbacks to former UFC welterweight title challengers Demian Maia and Stephen Thompson.

Tom Taylor - March 28, 2018

If you watched Kamaru Usman defeat Emil Meek at UFC St. Louis in January, you’ll probably recall his controversial post-fight interview, during which he claimed he’d fought (and won) with just 30 percent of his ability. Shortly after Usman made this remark, he was hit by a tidal wave of backlash—including a few critical comments from UFC President Dana White.

Drake Riggs - March 23, 2018

After several different reports and mixed potential matchups between both the UFC Chile and Liverpool cards, it seems things have finally been settled. For Liverpool, after some intense back and forth between the eventual headliner, Darren Till, and Kamaru Usman it looked like they may end up being the two to fight each other thus figuring things out for Liverpool but not Chile. However, we first discovered the main event for Liverpool which was not Till vs Usman but Till vs two-time title challenger, Stephen Thompson.

Tom Taylor - March 23, 2018

Yesterday evening, our own insider extraordinaire Chris Taylor reported that the UFC’s upcoming debut in Chile will feature a welterweight showdown between ranked contenders Santiago Ponzinibbio and Neil Magny. Apparently, however, the card nearly got a welterweight showdown between Ponzinibbio and Kamaru Usman instead. At least, that’s what Usman is claiming. In a Thursday evening Twitter post, Usman divulged that he’d been offered a fight with Ponzinibbio, and that he had accepted this offer. He then claimed that Ponzinibbio turned down the fight.

Justin Golightly - March 21, 2018

Darren Till can’t get a fight even though he’s headlining a major UFC Liverpool card. Kamaru Usman is sitting just above him in the rankings, but can’t get a fight either. The two recently went at it on Twitter, but doesn’t believe it will actually result in them fighting at UFC Liverpool. Why? First, because Usman doesn’t believe the UFC wants Till to lose on hs own show. Second, because the stalling at the top of welterweight. “The UFC got itself in a situation here. This is the situation right now in the welterweight division: Darren Till and I are sitting at No. 7 and No. 8. No one above us will take a fight with either him or I, absolutely not. A couple of guys above us are actually terrified of us. Colby Covington being the first one. He is definitely terrified because he only wants [Tyron] Woodley. He thinks, ‘I already got up here, so I’m not going to risk getting beat up by any of these other guys. If I’m going to get beat up I want to get paid for it by fighting Woodley.’ Nobody above us will fight us.”

Tom Taylor - March 21, 2018

Yesterday evening, UFC welterweight contenders Kamaru Usman and Darren Till engaged in a heated back-and-forth on Twitter. Shortly thereafter, Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz involved several other top welterweights with a followup Tweet – including Jorge Masvidal, who didn’t take kindly to what was being said. Here’s how it all went down.

Drake Riggs - March 20, 2018

The UFC’s 170-pound weight class is easily one of if not the best and deepest division they have to offer. However, none of the many top talents have any fights booked at the moment. And some are starting to get a little antsy. Those of which include the likes of rising contenders, Kamaru Usman and Darren Till. Till has been vocal about wanting to just fight whoever and where ever. He now has the date set for May 27th in his home of Liverpool, England but no opponent. Today, the “Nigerian Nightmare” Kamaru Usman took to Twitter to put the division(and Till) on notice. In which the outspoken Brit would respond resulting in some fun banter.

Tom Taylor - February 20, 2018

Kamaru Usman wants to fight Colby Covington. At this point, that’s no secret. Apparently, however, Usman is getting tired of waiting for his fellow welterweight contender to oblige him. On Monday, “The Nigerian Nightmare” once again called out his rival, this time challenging him to a showdown at UFC 224, which goes down May 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – a nation packed to the edges with Covington haters. Apparently, if Covington doesn’t answer Usman’s calls this time, Usman will never entertain the idea of fighting him again.

Justin Golightly - January 17, 2018

It’s 2018 and Darren Till still hasn’t been booked. You can chalk it up to scared opponents, intelligent strategy, or just the UFC’s booking department. Either way, he’s been wanting a fight ever since his dominant performance against veteran Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. Pretty much every welterweight in the entire division has been in talks for a fight with the Scouser, but none have materialized. Till’s eyebrows  raised up for Kamaru Usman’s fight last weekend, thinking Usman was going to call him out, but alas it didn’t happen. He once again voiced his frustrations in a recent interview. “I thought if [Kamaru Usman] won, he would definitely say my name. I didn’t even watch the fight, but all I’ve heard is that he has terrible striking and all he did was force his opponent up against the fence. He might be able to do that to Emil Meek, but he wouldn’t be able to do it to me. I’m twice the size of him for f-ck’s sake. I’m twice as strong as him. Usman has been talking so much sh-t and his performance didn’t prove anything to anyone. He’s saying that he was at 30 percent, but once you’re in that cage your excuses go out the window. It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling ill or if you’ve got a broken bone, you’ve gone in there because you’ve decided that you’re in good enough condition to fight. I don’t believe in any of that bullsh-t.”

Tom Taylor - January 15, 2018

Last night, on the main card of the UFC’s anticipated debut in St. Louis, streaking welterweight contender Kamaru Usman wrestled a tough Emil Meek to a decisive unanimous decision win. In his post-fight speech, “The Nigerian Nightmare” explained that he’d executed this win at “30%”. While Usman’s win was undeniably dominant, it didn’t do much to impress UFC President Dana White. White also didn’t like Usman’s 30% comment.

Tom Taylor - January 14, 2018

Shortly after Darren Elkins’s epic comeback win over Michael Johnson and the UFC’s touching tribute to the recovering Matt Hughes, welterweight contenders Kamaru Usman and Emil Meek stepped into the cage to do battle. Round one of this fight was decisively Usman’s. Though he very nearly dove into a Meek guillotine with his first takedown, he survived this scare to control the rest of the round, softening his viking foe up with ground-and-pound in the process.

Justin Golightly - January 12, 2018

Kamaru Usman is frustrated to say the least. He’s campaigned for the better part of a year for higher ranked names to test himself against, but the fights never got booked. All of the big fights he’s wanted have either passed him by for some reason or another, or have been taken by Colby Covington. So, make no mistake that going into his fight this Sunday against Emil Meek, he’s going to fight the man who was willing to step up, but he’s not taking his eyes off of bigger things. Sooner or later, he believes he and Covington will have to fight. Not just because the natural progression of the rankings, but because it is written in the book of fate. “It’s a fight that has to happen. It’s a fight that has to happen because I believe this is fate. This fight has been written. How much of a small world do we live in? I was a little boy born in Auchi, Nigera, in a country full of over 200 million people, in a small farm town. To get to the point where I immigrate here, I’m in America, to where I get to college and I cross paths with the people that I have. Let’s just summarize this a little bit: Me and Jon Jones crossed paths senior year of high school. We met at senior nationals, a big wrestling tournament, and after that, we became friends. ‘Hey, I’m going to go to school in Iowa next year.’ He said, ‘I’m going to go to school in Iowa [too].’ That’s great. We stayed in touch.”

Tom Taylor - December 18, 2017

For weeks and weeks, the status of Kamaru Usman and Emil Meek’s anticipated welterweight scrap has been uncertain. Originally, the fight was scheduled to occur at UFC 219, on December 30 in Las Vegas. Regrettably, it became known that Norway’s Meek was having a difficult time acquiring a US visa, which shrouded this contest in doubt. At that point, Usman claims to have been offered a replacement fight with fellow welterweight contender Colby Covington, which he claims Covington turned down. From there, Meek secured his visa in time for his visit to the US, assuring that he’d fight on Usman at UFC 219 after all, but apparently it was too little too late. The fight was removed from UFC 219, while multiple reports suggested it would likely be rescheduled for UFC 220, which goes down on January 20 in Boston.