Vicente Luque is hoping to fight his ex-teammate, Kamaru Usman, for the welterweight title, but he admits, when they sparred, things did not go well for him.
Luque picked up another first-round submission win over Michael Chiesa at UFC 265 which put him into the top-five at welterweight. After the fight, the Brazilian called out Usman as he thought he deserved a crack at the belt. Usman, meanwhile, was quick to respond and showed some interest saying they would dance soon.
Given Luque and Usman are former teammates, many are interested to hear how their training sessions went. To some surprise, Luque was brutally honest and admits Usman was beating him.
“It’s hard to say how many times I trained with him, but I did train a lot, let’s say 40, 30 sparring rounds, at least, even more than that,” Luque said to ESPN. “I can honestly say, most of the time I got my ass beat, just because he has always been really good in every discipline. I would say I’m a little bit better at striking but right now, you see he’s striking against the best, he knocked out Masvidal. Overall, I think I was a little behind him and I was picking up, learning a lot from him in wrestling, grappling, the scramble.
“I would say most of the time I got my ass whooped but it’s part of learning and that’s really important for me to get to the level I’m at right now,” Luque continued. “I think it’s a different fight now, even if we trained now he would realize, yeah Vicente has grown a lot, he has really evolved and that’s why I feel ready to fight against him and really put him in danger and get that title.”
Before Usman has the chance to defend his belt against Luque, he will need to beat Colby Covington in their rematch at UFC 268. After that, perhaps Leon Edwards gets the next title shot, but Luque is closing in on earning a shot at the belt and fighting his old teammate.
Who do you think would win, Kamaru Usman or Vicente Luque?
