Coming off his dominant win against Joaquin Buckley at UFC Fight Night in Atlanta, Kamaru Usman has his eyes set on an ambitious quest that will consolidate his UFC legacy. The Nigerian Nightmare is at the tail end of his career, which was on the verge of becoming the most dominant welterweight fighter of all time before Leon Edwards happened in August 2022.
After dethroning Tyron Woodley in 2019, Usman defended the 170-pound belt five times. He was on a 19-career win streak when Edwards stopped him with a brutal head kick at UFC 278. He failed to reclaim the belt at UFC 286 in March 2023 and lost to Khamzat Chimaev, the current Middleweight Champion at UFC 294 that October.
Bagging his first win against Buckley since Edwards put him to sleep, Usman reentered the title conversation again. Now, the former UFC welterweight champion is aiming to finish his fighting career in a grand style. In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Usman revealed that his goal for rounding up his career is to win the welterweight title again, and then gun for the middleweight title.
“[For] the next 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 we’re done.”
Usman’s tall dream seems impossible, especially in view of the fighters involved. To regain the welterweight belt, his odds are stacked against Sean Brady, Ian Machado Garry, and Belal Muhammed. If he comes out on top against these fighters, he will have to face either Jack Della Maddalena, the current champion of the division, or Islam Makhachev, the former UFC lightweight champion, to secure the belt.
Should he make it to middleweight, does he have what it takes to defeat Khamzat Chimaev? Well, time will tell how the former welterweight champion ends his illustrious career. Whatever happens, he has secured a legacy as one of the greatest welterweight fighters in UFC’s history.
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