Kamaru Usman has returned to the Octagon with a dominant victory over Joaquin Buckley. Usman was MIA since UFC 294 in October 2023, where he suffered a defeat at the hands of Khamzat Chimaev. The defeat marked his third consecutive loss. Naturally, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ was glad to get the monkey off his back on Saturday.
The win did more than just that, apparently. Usman has been entangled in a bitter feud with Belal Muhammad for some time now. The duo allegedly got into a physical altercation while shooting an episode of Pound 4 Pound, a podcast co-hosted by Usman. Since then, the welterweight fighters have shared barbs on social media.
Usman’s recent win, however, may have acted as a catalyst in melting the ice between the two. Soon after the fight, Muhammad uploaded a video on YouTube, giving his honest review of the fights. Among those, he picked Usman for some special praise, lauding him for breaking the myth of ‘bad knees’ among others.
“My initial reactions, Usman still got juice left in the tank, right? A big fight for him. Three losses in a row. People had all the questions in the world about him,” began Muhammad.
“Does he still have it? Does he still have knees? And I think he went out there and he proved that he does still have it. He still belongs in the top of the division with the best guys in the world, and he looked good.”
Usman deserves every bit of praise that came his way. He dominated Buckley right from the start of the fight with some clean take-downs. As ‘New Mansa’ failed to find answers to Usman’s brilliance, the pressure kept mounting and ultimately took everything out of him by the time the bout reached the fifth round.
Is Kamaru Usman interested in a fight with Belal Muhammad?
Muhammad lost the welterweight title in his very first defense against Jack Della Maddalena. The UFC 315 loss meant that he might have to lock horns with Usman sometime in the future in their pursuit of the title fight. While Muhammad has been open to fighting his bitter foe, Usman looks far from interested.
In fact, in the press conference post his win over Buckley, Usman turned down the possibility in a deft fashion. The Nigerian fighter clarified that his only target is the title fight against Maddalena. Notably, Maddalena is set to fight former lightweight champ Islam Makhachev.
“Who is it? Who’s that? Next,” replied Usman when asked about his interest in facing Muhammad.
The comment received a swift comeback from Muhammad, who posted on X: “The guy who made you cry on your podcast.”
Clearly, there is no love lost between the welterweight warriors. Up to Dana White and UFC brass to decide how things pan out for Usman and Muhammad next. Fans surely know what they’d want to see.
