Kamaru Usman Details Podcast Altercation with Belal Muhammad

Kamaru Usman recently shared his version of the infamous podcast fight with Belal Muhammad. 

Usman and Muhammad have not been on the best of terms, often feuding on social media. Regardless, Dominance MMA head Ali Abdelaziz set up Muhammad as a guest on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast co-hosted by Usman and Henry Cejudo. 

While there was hope that Muhammad and Usman would bury the hatchet, things instead got heated between the two. While the podcast hasn’t been released, reports of the incident continue to surface. Sharing his version, Usman hinted that Muhammad’s championship reign got into his head and made him say things that he found offensive. However, “The Nigerian Nightmare” would have preferred for things to have turned out differently. Usman also wished Muhammad hadn’t lost his title against Jack Della Maddalena, as he would have liked to fight “Remember the Name.”

“When you become champion, it validates a lot of different things for you that maybe only you are able to see at one point,” Usman told Shakeil Mahjouri. “And I think that’s what it did for him. But in that process he was just doing and saying a couple of things that were distasteful for me. He was on the podcast and we attempted to have a conversation about it. But it unfortunately didn’t go the way I think either of us would have liked. At least not on my part… It’s unfortunate that he lost the title. Because that would have been a great fight between myself and Muhammad.”

Muhammad previously claimed that he was talking about being a champ when Usman brought up his own title reign.. Things escalated when Muhammad reminded Usman that he was no longer the champ and also taunted him about the head kick loss to Leon Edwards. Cejudo later claimed that the scrap turned physical, and he had to intervene along with the production crew. 

Muhammad’s title reign ended with an upset loss against Maddalena at UFC 315. Meanwhile, Usman is on a three-fight skid, which includes consecutive title losses against Edwards followed by a middleweight loss against Khamzat Chimaev. The former welterweight champ returns to action against Joaquin Buckley (21-6) in the main event at UFC Atlanta this weekend at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.