Former UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, has not competed since losing to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 back in Oct. 2023, a short-notice bout that sent “The Nigerian Nightmare” — once considered the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport — to his third straight loss.
That said, the 37 year-old ex-champ remained one of the most requested fighters in 2024, thanks to a long list of hungry contenders looking to slug their way into title contention. Unfortunately, “Marty from Nebraska” is rehabbing a series of undisclosed injuries and has no timetable for return.
That doesn’t sit well with current 170-pound titleholder, Belal Muhammad.
“You just got called out by [Joaquin] Buckley,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “You got called out by Ian [Machado Garry]. He’s getting called out by all these guys and then he complains ‘all these losers keep calling me out, why you keep calling me out, when I’m healthy [I’ll fight], blah, blah, blah.’ Bro, you’ve been out over a year. If your knees are gone, your knees are gone. They’re not going to get any better. They’re not going to randomly grow cartilage.”
Usman is currently ranked No. 3 at 170 pounds.
“Either defend your ranking or get out of the rankings,” Muhammad continued. “Because there’s hungry guys, hungry contenders that are right there. I think he just wants to be a podcaster. He just wants to be a guy like a [Conor] McGregor where he stays in the mix just by saying stupid stuff and hoping that it gets headlines. They’re not going to be the guys that fight. They’re not going to be the guys that want the next hungry guys anymore.”
Muhammad, dealing with his own injury, is expected to make his first 170-pound title defense against undefeated welterweight contender, Shavkat Rakhmonov, at some point over the next few months. The winner of that fight could face one of these two combatants later this year.
Nobody should be in the rankings if they have been out for a year.
Lol prime Usman beats Belal. Belal has nothing new for him
I don’t see a prime Usmen anymore
His last fight was Oct ‘23 where he lost his third straight fight…
And he’s ranked #3?
I get 2 out of those 3 were vs Edwards and the other wasn’t at WW and it was Khamzat … not just nobodies
But put it this way - his last fight at WW was nearly 2 years ago, his last win at WW was over 3 years ago…
Regardless of the reasons for the inactivity (not to mention losses), you can’t be ranked 3 in a divvy you haven’t had a win in for over 3 years