Kamaru Usman calls dibs at Belal Muhammad title fight after UFC 304 upset

Usman has fought Leon Edwards thrice in the promotion. He lost the last two times, but Usman argued that people forgot he was winning almost throughout that fight. That was until the Brit landed that kick in the final at UFC 278 and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ lost his title. They fought again at UFC 286 and Usman lost by majority decision.

He believes the title win spoiled Edwards and he forgot to fix his shortcomings as a grappler and paid the price at UFC 304. Belal Muhammad dumped Leon Edwards on his head and went the entire distance to ultimately walk away with the unanimous decision victory and the welterweight title.

Kamaru Usman is unhappy with Dana White

Kamaru Usman has not fought in a while. He made a short-notice appearance against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 and lost via majority decision. However, he is yet to make his official comeback to the welterweight division where he reigns as the #1 ranked contender.

But in the meantime, Dana White made a big decision that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is “salty” about. The UFC CEO declared at the post-fight press conference that he would no longer increase the fight bonuses to the hundreds of thousands of dollars they used to be.

And I am a little salty I’ll tell you that right now. I’m a little salty so Dana please please, I know you are upset with what happened but hey. Just wait around for me you know just wait around for when I jump back in there. You spike it on for time for me and that’s that. Kamaru Usman on the Pound 4 Pound podcast

The reason Dana White withdrew the bonuses was because he was disappointed with the performances at UFC 304. White said it did not look like higher bonuses made any of the contenders fight any harder. At UFC 304, Tom Aspinall and Mick Parkin got $100K bonuses each while Paddy Pimblett walked away with the biggest bonus of $200,000 for his win against Bobby Green.