Kamaru Usman doesn’t consider the UFC’s BMF belt a real title.
The BMF title has been in the spotlight recently after current BMF champion Max Holloway suffered the first knockout loss of his career to featherweight champion Ilya Topuria at UFC 308 last weekend. Although Holloway’s BMF strap was not on the line, “El Matador” was seen carrying the BMF belt along with his featherweight gold strap after the match. UFC CEO Dana White also said he wondered why the BMF title wasn’t also on the line midway through the fight.
However, former middleweight champion Usman doesn’t think the BMF title is worth much discussion. According to “Nigerian Nightmare”, BMF’s belt is a virtual champion created for him. Jorge Masvidal became the first BMF champion with a doctor stoppage victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in 2019. Usman said he was originally scheduled to make his first welterweight title defense against Colby Covington at UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden. Usman claims the UFC fabricated the BMF title for Masvidal and Diaz because a MSG headliner without a title fight is meaningless.
“Why are you talking like this is a real title? It’s not,” Usman said on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “This was a hypothetical I had…Me and Covington were supposed to fight at MSG in New York. The fight didn’t happen. They needed a fight to headline that card. I needed something with steam. You can’t put any fight card on MSG. So what’s the most popular ticket at the moment? Well, Jorge “Gamebread” Masvidal… and of course there’s Nate Diaz, who has always had a mystique, that’s Nate Diaz… Dana jumped in and said, “How do we promote this fight? “Let’s make this, okay, it’s called the worst mother fur belt…” Come on. Are you serious? That’s why it started. ”
Usman defended the strap with a technical knockout against Covington at UFC 245 in December 2019, beginning a dominant title reign that ended with another successful defense against ‘Chaos’ at UFC 268 in 2021. . Since then, Usman has had three fights in a row. He suffered consecutive title losses against Leon Edwards, and then suffered a slump in the middleweight division, losing by majority decision to Khamzat Chimaev.
Usman also noted that the three BMF champions in UFC history, Masvidal, Justin Gaethje and Holloway, all suffered knockout losses in their next bouts.
