Kamaru Usman recently came out with his verdict over a rumor that involves Shavkat Rakhmonov. Khabib Nurmagomedov was the one to come up with this match-up since he still keeps an eye on the sport after retirement and even started his own fight promotion Eagle FC. Last week the documentary called ‘Fight Inc: Inside the UFC’ was aired on Roku and one footage became quickly viral.

It was a negotiation between UFC CEO Dana White and Kamaru Usman’s manager Ali Abdelaziz. However, now, Usman has made the rumors straight in his podcast on Pound 4 Pound and explained what happened.

Kamaru Usman put the rumours to sleep

In the footage from the documentary, Dana White was seen going into the UFC ‘War Room’, and discussing the 170lbs fights for Shavkat Rakhmonov, with Kamaru Usman. He even went to the kitchen to pose this idea between ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ and Rakhmonov to Usman’s manager. However, Usman wanted ‘Wonderboy’ aka Stephen Thompson.

Now the 37-year-old explained that the documentary was filmed one year ago and it would have been before he accepted the short-notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev. But at present, he is not thinking about fighting as he said in his podcast. He said that when he did return he would be ready to fight whoever he needed to get to the top.  He also added, “At the end of the day, people are like oh you’re scared to fight this guy. You don’t become champion to defend over and over because you’re scared to fight somebody.”

Khamzat Chimaev gave a tweet according to Henry and tweet, “JDM is hurt, Usman and Colby don’t want it. I’m ready to face the winner of Leon vs Belal.” Usman also said that when he did get back to the octagon he was ready to fight anyone from John to Shavkat, Leon Edwards, or even Belal Muhammad. Now why did Khabib Nurmagomedov propose the Usman Rakhmonov fight? Let’s see.

Khabib Nurmagomedov explained the reason he chose Usman vs Rakhmonov

In the same documentary, the Dagestani champ and Hall of Famer spoke to Dana White and Usman’s manager. He spoke about the 170-pound kind’s next fight. Abdelaziz said that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ wanted to fight Thompson but Nurmagomedov proposed #3 welterweight Rakhmonov.

He gave his reasoning and said, One of the things that make you the greatest fighter is when you are 36-37 and you have a fifteen-win streak. Like back in the day, you defend your title many times, you are one of the best of all time. And you allow shining for young guys, this is [what] makes you great. And can you imagine if he fights with Shavkat and he beat Shavkat [who is] a beast, he is undefeated, and he beats [him], he’s gonna become a contender?” 

White was completely on board and ‘The Eagle’ felt this bout would be unmatched. He even backed Usman to win against Kazakh. Usman is on a three-fight losing streak and lost his title to Leon Edwards in UFC 278. Given his record after losing to Chimaev, he is in no position to fight for his 170-pound title. However, if he wins over Rakhmonov, then this would help him gain momentum. Let’s see who he is pitted against in UFC!