Kamaru Usman: Security Needed When Paths Cross with Belal Muhammad

Things are heating up between Kamaru
Usman and Belal
Muhammad.

The beef between the two first started with Usman (20-4)
criticizing Muhammad (24-3) for refusing to fight his friend and
teammate Islam
Makhachev. Muhammad responded with a long rant, mocking Usman’s
recent inactivity, labelling him a “podcaster.” Muhammad also
accused “The Nigerian Nightmare” of shying away from tough
competition during his welterweight title reign.

Usman now says that tension between them has risen to the point
where security will be needed if they come across each other at an
event where they both aren’t competing. While Usman claims to be a
collected person outside the Octagon, he also believes fighters are
always on alert when “in the thick of it,” which he hasn’t been for
a while.

“Probably [security will be needed]… I’m very level headed,
especially when I’m outside of the cage,” Usman told ESPN. “But for
almost two years now, I haven’t been in the thick of it. There’s a
transition when you’re not. People expect us to be these fighters
and we’re always on go mode. When I’m outside of the cage, people
are like, ‘Why are you so calm? You’re a scary fighter.’ But I’m
not like that. So when you’re in the thick of it, you’re on alert
all the time… And I haven’t been that for a while. But now that
we’re back in the thick of it, yeah, you’d probably have to have
security back there with us.”

Usman lost his title to Leon
Edwards in 2022 and failed to reclaim it in their rematch. He
then went up for a one-off middleweight outing against Khamzat
Chimaev, where he dropped a decision in October 2023 and hasn’t
competed since. The 37-year-old will return against Joaquin
Buckley (21-6) in the
UFC on ESPN 69 main event on June 14 at State Farm Arena in
Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Muhammad dethroned Edwards via unanimous decision last
year. “Remember the Name” is set to defend his title for the first
time against Jack
Della Maddalena (17-2) at
UFC 315 on May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal.