UFC champion Kamaru Usman’s main motivation to be great should come as no surprise

UFC champion Kamaru Usman’s main motivation to be great should come as no surprise

It was the late, great boxing champion “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler who famously said “it’s tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 a.m. when you’re sleeping in silk pajamas.”

Well, UFC welterweight champ Kamaru Usman owns silk pajamas, and he sleeps like a baby in them. But as he’s worked to be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in both the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie and official UFC rankings, Usman remains balanced in that he enjoys the finer things in life but won’t let them get to his head.

“I do have silk pajamas, but that doesn’t change the work ethic,” Usman told MMA Junkie Radio. “And I think that’s what separates me from the rest. I’ve had silk pajamas now for a little while, and I still get myself up to go train. That’s just part of me. It’s part of my lifestyle, and that’s one thing I really cherish about this while I’m doing it. I don’t take this for granted. I know that tomorrow, God forbid, things could be different. And I just need to maximize who I am right now, so I still get up, and I still put in that time. I don’t care if I’m fighting a guy once or I’m fighting him over and over, three, four times. I’m still gonna prepare for him just as hard in those other times as I have the first time.”

Usman (20-1 MMA, 15-0 UFC), 34, finds himself in that scenario facing a familiar foe yet again for his next fight as he’s expected to rematch Leon Edwards in July, this time with his 170-pound title on the line. Usman’s already won two rematches – against Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal – in five successful title defenses among his remarkable 19-fight overall winning streak.

Usman first beat Covington and Masvidal in title fights before doing so a second time. His win over Edwards came by unanimous decision in December 2015 in just his second UFC fight.

Usman, who had hand surgery back in February, said he’ll remain motivated as ever as champion no matter the opponent – fresh or not. And there’s one primary source for his motivation.

“It’s my daughter,” Usman said. “It’s getting to understand the opportunity, everything that I’m presenting for her, that I’ve done in order for her to enjoy and be in a certain type of lifestyle, get a certain type of education, be in a certain type of system. Those aren’t necessarily the opportunities that I got. I wanna make sure that if that’s what she wants to do, she can do anything.

“Not getting up to get that roadwork in could potentially hinder that. That’s what I don’t want.”

You can hear more from Usman in the video above.