UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman is building a legacy. “The Nigerian Nightmare” lost his second fight, and is undefeated since. He won TUF 21 in 2005, beat Tyron Woodley for the world championship in 2019, and has successfully defended it twice, TKO’ing Colby Covington and decisioning Jorge Masvidal. He defends next vs. Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 on February 13, 2021.
Woodley spoke repeatedly about being a divisional GOAT candidate, but that’s not something you will hear coming from Usman, as he explained to Damon Martin for MMA Fighting.
Honestly, I don’t look at that. I don’t think about that, said Usman. I don’t think about stuff like that. I remember when Tyron Woodley was saying those things, he’s the greatest welterweight of all time and this and that. Of course he’s in that conversation but that’s not something you bestow upon yourself. That’s not something I want to think about and say I’m this, I’m that.
No, I go out there and I do my job. I take it one fight at a time and then when I am done over time people look at your body of work and say ‘wow, look what he did, look who he got through, he fought everyone and he made them look like this and he fought them and did them this way.’ I’m not the one who’s going to go out there and put that label on myself but if you actually look at my resume and when I’m said and done and you’re like ‘he 50-43’d this guy, 50-44’d this guy, he did this to that guy, man, that’s the greatest of all time.’
With that Tyron Woodley situation, I felt like towards the end, he put so much pressure on himself as that, as ‘I’m the greatest welterweight of all time, I’m this and that’ to where it’s almost like I’m sitting here, I know something you don’t know. I know that I’m better and you’re sitting here and your worry is that you’re the greatest welterweight of all time? It is what it is. But you’re going to take an ‘L’ on this one.
It’s not one of those things that I’m putting by the wayside or not paying attention to. I am paying attention to it. I’m making sure that each and every fight, I’m fully aware of what’s in front of me.
I’ll let people make [the GOAT] conclusion. That’s not something I bestow upon myself. That’s not something I’m worried about right now. Right now, I’m just worried about who is the next guy in front of me and just going out there and making sure that I get that win.
