Kamaru Usman and Shavkat Rakhmonov have shared a health club, however that doesn’t imply they will’t share the octagon on struggle night time.
UFC 310 remains to be in flux with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad having withdrawn from the scheduled primary occasion after struggling a foot an infection. Muhammad was to defend his title towards Rakhmonov and it’s not but recognized if their struggle will probably be rescheduled or if a brand new opponent will probably be discovered for Rakhmonov to remain on the Dec. 7 card.
Ought to the matchmakers want an elite title to step into Muhammad’s spot, Usman is prepared for the decision, even when it means squaring off with a fighter he’s usually seen in the identical coaching area.
“To start with, let me make clear one thing: We’re not teammates,” Usman mentioned on his Pound-4-Pound podcast. “He is available in and trains in my health club the place I used to be for many of my profession till the final 4 or 5 years, which I’m nonetheless in that health club. That’s [Henry Hooft’s] health club, Kill Cliff now’s the title, however he’s not my teammate per se.
“But when the UFC’s going to name who they assume goes to be legit robust sufficient and man sufficient to step in there, is loopy sufficient to step in there on quick discover and go on the market and probably shock the world, positively the UFC know who to name when that scenario occurs. And in the event that they do give me a name, I’m going to reply the decision, we’ll get a few issues straight and if we’ve obtained to do it, we’ve obtained to do it. I don’t shrink back from any of that. I’ve completed it on six days’ discover. I’ve completed it on eight days’ discover and hey, that is solely a few weeks’ discover.”
Usman is presently on a three-fight skid and has been affected person with seeking out his subsequent opponent. Most lately, he misplaced a majority choice to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in a middleweight bout that he accepted on quick discover. Previous to that, he misplaced back-to-back title fights towards rival Leon Edwards and is now winless since November 2021.
There was no love misplaced between Usman and Muhammad and whereas that’s a matchup he’s additionally focused, he hopes Muhammad is given correct time to get better and suffers no longterm unfavorable results from his toe an infection.
“That’s my private perception, I do generally assume he does act like a dork, however Belal, he’s a person,” Usman mentioned. “He’s a person on the identical time. He’s a competitor, he’s a fighter, and I might by no means need to see that occur to anybody. I’ve handled sequence of sequence of accidents and it’s by no means enjoyable, particularly when that is our livelihood. That is how he feeds his household, so I might by no means, ever need one thing like that to occur. So hope for a speedy restoration for Mr. Belal Muhammad.”
