Will the UFC put Kamaru Usman ‘on ice’ while Leon Edwards defends his welterweight title against Khamzat Chimaev?
MMA analyst Chael Sonnen believes the UFC will put Kamaru Usman ‘on ice’ while Leon Edwards defends his welterweight title against Khamzat Chimaev.
Sonnen’s comments come after Khamzat’s historic UFC 279 weight miss that saw the ‘Borz’ hit the scales seven and a half pounds over the non-title fight welterweight limit.
Still, Sonnen believes Chimaev’s next fight will be at 170 and that the UFC will book him against Edwards while Usman, who ‘Rocky’ knocked out last month, waits to fight the winner for the championship.
“I don’t believe that Kamaru Usman is going to be fighting Leon next,” former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Sonnen told MiddleEasy in a recent interview (h/t Sportskeeda). “I believe that Kamaru’s next fight will be for a belt. I think they’re gonna keep Kamaru on ice. I think Chimaev vs Leon is a real possibility with the winner drawing into Kamaru… I think that when you have those three and you’re gonna match’em up, the order does matter. And I think what I just presented is a more viable order.”
The UFC is reportedly targeting a trilogy bout between Edwards and Usman which is more likely to go ahead than Sonnen’s proposal due to Khamzat missing weight against Diaz and Usman deserving a rematch with Edwards based on the fact he was winning until the KO.