The UFC‘s pound-for-pound king, Kamaru Usman might be headlining UFC 268 this weekend against bitter rival Colby Covington but the welterweight champion has his eye on greener pastures.
Speaking ahead of his rematch with Covington this Sunday (AEDT), the 19-1 fighter declared that he is seriously targeting a boxing match with boxing middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in the future.
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Alvarez, the current WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring super middleweight champion is rated as the sport’s pound-for-pound champ and Usman believes the match up would generate plenty of interest while giving him more motivation, having cleaned out the welterweight division.
“I think that’s something that [would be] the biggest ever in history,” Usman said. “That’s what I’m looking to do. That’s something that scares me. That’s something that gets me up in the morning. That’s something that I might risk leaving my daughter for another 12 weeks for.”
Both fighters will be fighting on the same night this weekend. Usman defends his title against Colby Covington at Madison Square Garden, while Alvarez’s pay-per-view bout against Caleb Plant will take place in Las Vegas. Usman said if he puts Covington away, which he expects to, he’ll lobby UFC boss Dana White about setting up a fight with Canelo.
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“The Nigerian Nightmare” admitted he hadn’t spoken to White about a fight with the Mexican star previously but said White was “hearing about it now”.
“We’ll see who does better,” Usman said. “We’re both in the business of entertainment nowadays. He’s gonna entertain on the same night. So will we.
“We’ll see who does better numbers and then we’re gonna sit there and we’ll have a discussion with the pound-for-pound best promoter in the game Dana White and we’ll try to make something happen.
“He’s a master of his craft,” Usman said of Canelo. “He’s used to these boxers. He’s used to the boxing speed and the boxing movements and things like that. We’re different. Sometimes different can be good.
“What’s wrong with giving him a different look? Of course, it’s a tall tree to climb, but we saw what happened the last time I was the underdog.”
Usman has four successful defences of his belt among 14 straight UFC victories, which rates as the second most in the promotion’s history behind only all-time great Anderson Silva, who has 16.
He has been faultless in the Octagon since beating Tyron Woodley for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 235 in 2019, and keeps adding more tools to his arsenal.
He hasn’t lost since 2013 and Covington will be his second straight title rematch after Usman knocked out Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 in April.
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