UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman has been dominating the division for quite a while now. He has beaten all the top contenders in the division and at the moment there are not many welterweights who can cause a serious threat to Usman’s title reign.
Kamaru Usman has accomplished some tremendous things in UFC. He became the welterweight champion by beating Tyron Woodley, who was then considered one of the greatest fighters alive. Usman also broke the record of Georges St-Pierre for the most number of consecutive wins in the welterweight division. Now at this point, what else Kamaru Usman has left to achieve?
The Nigerian Nightmare opened up about possibly taking retirement from the sport in a recent interview ahead of UFC 261. Usman stated:
“That’s a really, really good question because I’m asking myself that as well. 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. 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.
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Kamaru Usman coming to make a statement at UFC 261
Though retirement is something that is already there in Usman’s mind he is going to give nothing but his best at UFC 261. Usman continued:
“So this one(for UFC 261), I’m motivated because I didn’t really feel like I got that fix. 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.”
Kamaru Usman is only 33 years old and he is still improving. We can expect to see an even better version of Usman in the coming years. But, we have seen fighters retire young before they hit that inevitable decline. We just witnessed Khabib Nurmagomedov hanging up the gloves after his 29th MMA win.
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Kamaru Usman will definitely have a ton of opportunity ahead of him. But, it won’t be surprising if Usman calls it a quit in the near future considering his level of accomplishments that might make many fighters content.