Dominant welterweight champion Kamaru Usman finished Colby Covington in their first fight. Photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie USA TODAY Sports
On Saturday, welterweight champion Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman will defend his gold against Leon Edwards. There has been indications that the champion will move up to a new weight class if he wins the bout. Although a move up to middleweight makes most sense, Usman has lately been talking about skipping the 185-division completely and instead stepping up to light heavyweight.
In a recent interview with MMA Underground’s John Morgan, UFC president Dana White gave his opinion about Usman’s intentions.
“That’s crazy. Yeah, that’s crazy. He’s never said that to me,” White said. “But, I mean, when you look at those guys, you’re looking at, you know, Procházka, Glover, Jan, Magomed. I mean, these guys are fucking monsters. Yeah, I think that’s a bad idea.”
The UFC president even seemed to think that the top of the middleweight division could be too much of a problem for “The Nigerian Nightmare”.
“I mean, the guys at middleweight are big. When you start talking about, you know, Cannonier, Whittaker, Vettori. Those are scary guys at that weight,” White said. “Pereira. You got a guy like Brunson who could wrestle, too. Tough one.”
Kamaru Usman won the UFC welterweight championship in March 2019 when he defeated Tyron Woodley by unanimous decision. Since then he has defended his title five times against Jorge Masvidal, Colby Covington and Gilbert Burns.