Former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has another option for his next fight in former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis.
Usman (21-4-0), 38, has been vocal in asking for welterweight champ Islam Makhachev, but on his Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo, recently revealed the UFC has offered him the former 185-pound champion Dricus du Plessis (23-3-0), 32.
“The Islam fight was obviously what I wanted and what I felt would have been great,” Usman said. “Not just for me, not just for Islam, but would have been great for the company, would have been great for the world to see that. Listen, people count me out day in and day out. The one thing that I do or I know for a fact I am, I’m honest with my abilities. … When I say I can still do this at that high level, I mean that.
“And for some reason, we’ve had conversations, but Hunter Campbell feels differently, and Hunter Campbell’s like, maybe not,” Usman added. “We don’t know yet, but it’s been a tumultuous back-and-forth with getting that done. Then other things were presented to me, like potentially DDP was presented to me or other guys. One thing about me, when they call and they say this guy or that guy, I say yes. At this point, it has to be meaningful. I’m not here just to fight the fight. If he gets me to the title that I want, that’s what I want.”
Makhachev publicly said that he wanted to fight Usman late last year, but with the generally tepid reaction from fans for the matchup, it looks like the UFC has taken the middleweight approach.
Meanwhile, Du Plessis is coming off a title loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 last August, while Usman defeated Joaquin Buckley last June at UFC on ESPN 69.