Kamaru Usman’s motivation hasn’t wavered after he dropped two straight for the first time in his career.
Usman has lost back-to-back title fights to welterweight champion Leon Edwards, who handed him his first octagon loss. Edwards dethroned Usman with a late head-kick knockout at UFC 278, then beat him again in their rematch at UFC 286 in March.
Usman (20-3 MMA, 15-2 UFC) admits he finds himself in unfamiliar territory after having previously defended his welterweight title five times, but says this by no means signals the end for him.
“People were more upset that I lost than I was,” Usman said in a recent episode of “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson.” “People were devastated. … I know that I’m the best welterweight, for sure, in the division – I know that. But I’m just in the place where I’m loving the sport again, falling in love with the sport again. I’ve been training now and I just feel stronger. I’m doing certain things, and I’m liking that process again. When I look back on my journey to becoming champion, and defending over and over and over, it was the journey.
“I remember in my white Nissan Maxima, tinted out, just me and my daughter. She’s in the car seat in the back, we drive to the gym, get done, go to Babies R Us, hang out for an hour. I knew what song to play in the car, knock her out, she’s asleep, get home, put her to bed. That was my routine, that was my structure, and I was in love with that process. Then you get to the top and it’s like, ‘No, you’ve got to go here for this interview, you’ve got to go to L.A. for that, you’ve got to go do this show.’ Now I’ve been gone for three weeks and I haven’t even spent time with my daughter.”
Usman doesn’t currently have a fight booked, but the former champion is ready to return soon.
“I’m loving the process right now, and I’m loving falling in love with the sport again to where, for me, I might just want to pop out in the next couple months and beat somebody up again,” Usman said. “I’m really starting to feel that, but it’s on my own terms now.”
