Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has a dream scenario to end his career.
Usman was the UFC’s welterweight champion from 2019 until 2022 and defended the belt five times. Although Usman is now 38 and is 1-3 in his last four, he has confidence that he will be able to recapture UFC gold.
After one fight at middleweight, Usman returned to welterweight and beat Joaquin Buckley at UFC Atlanta in June. Now, as he looks to return to the Octagon, Usman said his goal is to win the belt at welterweight, vacate, and then go up and win the middleweight title before retiring.
“Absolutely you’re thinking about the fight,” Usman said on his YouTube channel. “When you’re going into the fight, it’s not so much I’m afraid of being hurt. ‘I’m afraid this guy might hurt me.’ I’m not afraid of that anymore. It’s crazy how the whole point of it is you’re afraid of losing. It’s like, ‘Man, I did all this work. I can’t lose.’
Kamaru Usman wants to end his career on top
“That becomes the fear. Which ultimately can either hinder you or actually put you in a place where you perform to greater than your expectations,” Usman added. “In this part of my career, the dream scenario is next fight win the welterweight title, vacate, win the middleweight title, retire. Just boom boom, one, two, and then be done. Because you can’t top that. What else do I want?”
Usman is still ranked fifth at welterweight. So he likely would only need one more win to get another title shot at welterweight. But him moving up and getting a crack at the middleweight belt could be easier said than done. However, Usman did lose a close decision to Khamzat Chimaev, so he does have history with the middleweight champ.
Kamaru Usman (21-4) is coming off a decision win over Buckley. Before that, he dropped a decision to Khamzat Chimaev and lost back-to-back fights to Leon Edwards to lose his welterweight title.