Usman May Surpass GSP, Or May Just Walk Away

Kamaru Usman has a chance to make history in the welterweight division if he continues on his current trajectory. Unfortunately, the promotion may struggle to keep him (or the fans) interested without an influx of new and exciting contenders.

Reigning UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman has now won 17 straight fights, 13 of which came inside the Octagon. Along the way, “The Nigerian Nightmare” scored a glass trophy on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), a 170-pound title, and eight finishes.

He also beat the “BMF” champion.

Whether or not that puts him in the company of former greats like Georges St-Pierre is a matter of opinion — or a matter of recency bias, depending on who you ask. Former 170-pound champion Tyron Woodley, a talented fighter who can often be his own worst enemy, insists he’s the best welterweight to ever compete.

His unspectacular reign as champion does not support such a claim.

Usman, 33, has not yet done enough to consider himself a more accomplished champion than St-Pierre, but he’s certainly on his way. Fans who claim “The Nigerian Nightmare” is boring or playing it safe now that he’s captured the crown must have amnesia, because “Rush” had a string of seven straight decision victories, some of them bonus worthy.

Others … not so much.

Racking up another couple of title defenses doesn’t necessarily make Usman as good or better than St-Pierre unless the competition he’s facing is comparable to what “Rush” was dealing with several years back. It’s impossible to compare fighters from different eras, of course, but were Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, and Gilbert Burns as big a threat to Usman as Josh Koscheck, Nick Diaz, and Thiago Alves were to St-Pierre?

Food for thought.

“Being a realist and I’m honest with myself and I know that I can’t do this forever and I don’t want to do this forever,” Usman told MMA Fighting. “Like I said, we’re on a track right now, I’m just so far ahead of these guys that I’m coming back around and I’m lapping them now. So, talking to some of my mentors, and some of the greatest that have done this, what they’re telling me at some point it’s going to start, that waking up in the morning and going to the gym to put in a day’s work is going to start to get heavier and heavier when nothing really motivates me like that anymore.”

No question Usman is running out of new challengers. His UFC 261 pay-per-view (PPV) main event, which takes place this Sat. night inside VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., marks his second Masvidal title defense in less than a year. A victory brings “The Nigerian Nightmare” yet another familiar face in Colby Covington, who went down in the fifth round of their UFC 245 headliner back in late 2019.

The only Top 5 welterweight without a loss to Usman is the hot-and-cold Stephen Thompson, who’s certainly done his fair share of campaigning, but as of this writing does not have the record to warrant a third crack at the 170-pound crown, having already come up empty in back-to-back title fights against Woodley.

“So this one, I’m motivated because I didn’t really feel like I got that fix,” Usman continued. “I’ve still have that fear in me. I want to go out there and get this one but after this we have to really take a hard look and see what there is out there for me. Because it’s not these guys. Whether it’s crossing over and doing something else or maybe walking away, you never know.”

What we do know is that Usman has proven himself to be a dominant champion who could very well go on to break some (or all) of the division records set by St-Pierre. But it’s up to the promotion to produce enough worthy challengers to make it all worthwhile, unless Masvidal can beat the odds — and Usman — on Sat. night and make the conversation moot.

For much more on UFC 261 click here.