Fresh off a knockout victory over Jorge Masvidal, Kamaru Usman took off his gloves and squared off with some of the spiciest wings on the planet as a guest on “Hot Ones.”
As Usman worked his way up the Scoville scale, Usman took on a range of topics including his walkout music, quotes he finds inspirational and his style of breaking opponents mentally.
“I want (opponents) to wilt. I want to break them internally, where after this fight, they’ll remember this for the rest of their lives,” Usman said. “The biggest way to do that is fatigue. I have to be able to see when fatigue is setting in. When a fight starts, they’re very active and they have a scowl on their face. When they fatigue, that scowl slowly starts to go away and their hands aren’t as high anymore, they aren’t as activated. When I start to see these signs, I start to step on that gas and I want to break you, inside.”
When the conversation turned to respect vs. entertainment and, conversely, picking his favorite bouts, Usman couldn’t help but smile when recalling the leadup and eventual conclusion of his first showdown with Colby Covington.
“I put the majority (of my wins) on the same plane because each and every fight represents a different challenge,” Usman said. “My favorite was when this kid (Colby Covington) was jaw jacking too much, talking all this trash, saying he was going to do this, leave me on a stretcher, I’m Donald Trump’s favorite fighter, I’m this and that and all of the above, brought in religion, talked about my family, my former manager, my current manager. He did everything possible. Then to go in there and to physically break his jaw, then knock his ass out, was probably one of my favorites.”
The timing of this episode couldn’t be better, as it comes less than 24 hours after UFC president Dana White confirmed Usman’s next welterweight title defense will come in a rematch against Covington. There is currently no date set on Usman’s next showdown, but it’s telling how dominant Usman has been in the division that he’s making a second trips across the division with Masvidal and now Covington.
