UFC 294: Kamaru Usman sets sights on becoming UFC two-weight champion – ‘It’s an opportunity to do something monumental’

The former welterweight king is making the leap to middleweight this weekend in Abu Dhabi on just 11 days’ notice to take on one of the sport’s most feared up-and-coming stars as he bids to put himself in line for a shot at the 185lbs belt.

Asked about the moment he received the offer to replace the injured Costa, Usman told TNT Sports: “Yeah, I just got done at the gym and I’m walking through Target and I get the call and my manager’s smiling and I’m like, ‘What happened?’ He’s like, ‘How you feel about this?’

“I call my coaches and I’m like, ‘Hey guys, I’ve got an opportunity’. Nobody talked me out of it. I think they probably already kind of knew where I was leaning towards.

“For me, I’m in the season of just gratitude. You know, how often do you get an opportunity [like this]?

“I’ve been blessed with so many opportunities to be able to entertain the world, but for a highly anticipated fight like this that people care about. It’s not many.

“There’s a lot of fighters that fight. They have tonnes of fights in the UFC, and they’re done. And people don’t really remember, so being blessed with an opportunity like this to be able to go out and in the sense, I guess, shock the world even though it should be the other way around.

A move to 185lbs has long been touted as a possibility but Usman had previously resisted the temptation while Israel Adesanya reigned supreme.

But now that Adesanya is no longer atop the middleweight mountain and instead plans to take a break from the sport, Usman thinks the time is now right to attempt to do what few have done before him and become a two-weight UFC champion.

“Fighters fight. So whether it’s middleweight or welterweight let’s fight, if it makes sense of course,” he added. “And I know a lot of people said, ‘Why would you take this fight, it doesn’t make any sense for you. You’re a welterweight, you’re at the top of the welterweight, why don’t you just stay there?’

“Well, like I said, that opportunity to be able to do something that’s monumental. And fighters fight, we step in there and we lay it all on the line and we take big risks [for] big rewards.

“And so a lot of people knew why I didn’t want to go to middleweight. You know, Izzy was the champ, I was the champ, everybody just wanted to see me go fight Izzy and I wasn’t interested in that, and I’m still not interested in that.

“Izzy has said he’s going to take a little hiatus, so while he’s gone why don’t I keep that belt warm for him?

“And when he comes back, we’ll talk about the logistics of our weights. But I definitely, I would say this year, plan on definitely getting this middleweight belt, and then taking the welterweight one as well.”

Usman earned a unanimous decision victory against Strickland at welterweight at UFC 210 and would relish resuming his rivalry with the American.

“It definitely does [makes sense],” Usman said. “I mean the fans just think about the moment. You know, they don’t really look at the history of what’s happened and what’s going on.

“The guy’s the champion at middleweight – I’ve already beat. The champion at welterweight – I’ve already beat. The two guys fighting for the welterweight belt – I’ve already beat. So it makes a lot of sense.”

Usman comes into this mouth-watering clash after losing back-to-back fights for the first time in his career.

He was stunned in the fifth round of his UFC 278 title defence against Leon Edwards before losing the immediate rematch via unanimous decision.

No longer being the champion, however, has allowed him to get back to basics and re-energise as he plots his route back to the top.

“I think the big part is just kind of silencing the noise and starting to fall in love with the sport again,” he continued. “There’s this struggle that you have, this internal struggle, where you’re training every day when you don’t necessarily see the percentage difference and the better you’re getting.

“You’re just training, I’m not fighting, and you just feel kind of tired, you feel kind of burned out from all of that.

“What the great thing about it is, no-one necessarily is blowing you up, ‘Hey, you gotta go do this interview, you have to go do this, you have to go here, you have to do that’.

“And so having that calmed down a bit. I’m still doing stuff, I was just in Italy not too long ago, and still getting those opportunities.

“But now I have the opportunity to just be home with my daughter and just train like it was when I started. So I’ve been able to cherish that and this was kind of like, ‘Yeah, oh yeah. Wow, fly across the world and go beat up some guy’.”

As for how he thinks the fight with Chimaev will go, Usman fired an ominous warning shot.

“It depends on him. I think you could see one of the most entertaining fights you’ve ever seen or, depending on what he does, it could just be a one-sided fight.

“Everyone knows my style. It can be entertaining depending on the opponent if they did their homework but if they didn’t do their homework, it could just be a quick one-sided finish.”

He added: “For me it’s just about going in there and doing what I do and make him think.

“But he’s as advertised, make no mistake about it. I’m giving him all the respect in the world.

“He’s tough, he can wrestle, he can grapple, but so can I. We’ll see who’s the best man.”