Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Following his one sided win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251, Usman is ready to continue defending against the top dogs but would really love a fight against GSP.
From Jorge to Georges?
Following Kamaru Usman’s five round controlling of Jorge Masvidal at UFC 251, the “Nigerian Nightmare” is looking to surpass Georges St-Pierre’s record for most consecutive wins at welterweight (12). And what better person to do that against … than Georges himself?
“I was told before this week that myself and Georges St-Pierre are tied for longest consecutive wins,” Usman said during the UFC 251 post-fight show on ESPN+. “And the crazy stat is it took us approximately 1875 or 1825 days to get there. Georges is one of those guys who’s been considered the best for a long time, and even though he’s away from the sport he’s still considered that. I would love to test myself against a guy like him, he’s a dog. And if not, then as a champ I have to continue to defend the belt until I’m ready to walk away, and there’s no shortage of dogs in the division.”
“That’s a fight that I look at and I love and I want,” he added during the post-fight press conference. “I want a fight like that, to be able to train and showcase all my skills and have him showcase his skills. I think that’s a crazy fight, a huge fight, and I think a lot of people would want to see it.”
That’s some serious wishful thinking on Usman’s part for various reasons. But we’re always up for having Georges St-Pierre back in the conversation. The Montreal fighter may be retired, but he’s still staying in shape and some believe he’s in wait for the perfect fight to cement his legacy as GOAT. If we were to put our money on an opponent to do that, we’d say Khabib. But if Usman is still around a year from now dominating everyone he faces, who knows?
He’ll have to get back to that exciting style we saw against Colby Covington rather than the conservative wrestling-centric approach he took against Masvidal. A quick glance at Twitter following the UFC 251 main event tells me sports fans found the match ‘a tad disappointing’ and ‘kind of boring.’
Usman reacted to those opinions by saying “Maybe they need to get in there and fight Jorge Masvidal for 25 minutes and then say something.”
Having now tied @GeorgesStPierre‘s UFC record 12-fight welterweight wining streak, @USMAN84kg says he “would love to test himself” against the former champion #UFC251 pic.twitter.com/AsnTC4r5QJ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 12, 2020
“There was a time where people started hating Floyd Mayweather because he was dominant,” Usman continued. “And Floyd, his defense was so good and he was so good at what he did that people were like ‘Oh that’s boring, he’s not just fighting,’ because people want to see a bar fight. We’re risking our lives in there. And what’s the point of training every day to just slug around and take punches. You train to be able to make people miss, to control them in a certain way. That’s what training is for, so you’re not in there just taking punishment at will. And I do that better than anybody.”
“So whoever is saying that, they can say whatever they want. I went out there, I worked for 25 minutes. Even when we were up against the cage standing, I worked for 25 minutes. He could have gotten off the cage. But he was there, content staying there, and I kept working. So whoever is saying that, say what you want but share the Octagon for 25 minutes with Jorge Masvidal and see what you say then.”