Kamaru Usman is once again open to fighting Conor McGregor after laying down a somewhat harsh appraisal of McGregor’s current status.
Recently, Kamaru Usman and Conor McGregor were engaged in a heated exchange on social media after McGregor declared that he would soon be capturing Usman’s welterweight championship. This is not the first time McGregor had hinted at potentially going up to win a world title in a third division, but it was the first time he explicitly expressed a desire to compete against Usman.
Usman brushed aside McGregor’s talk as clout chasing, stating that McGregor is known to try to steal the spotlight from fighters after big performances, which is what Usman had just turned in at UFC 261 by knocking out Jorge Masvidal.
In an appearance on ESPN’s Ahora o Nunca, Usman reiterated his belief that McGregor is all talk but now states that if McGregor really wants to fight him, all he has to do is pick up the phone.
“Loudmouth. Just a loudmouth,” Usman said in describing McGregor. “He does more talking now than he does fighting….
“If he wants to fight me, he knows where to find me. He knows where to find me. He can call me, and we’ll make that fight happen.”
Usman Believes McGregor Is Now A Regular UFC Fighter
Usman recently said that McGregor is no different than the welterweights in his division who have to “show him something,” thus implying that McGregor would have to earn a title shot. These comments about a fight between the two being a phone call away conflict with those previous remarks, with Usman now more than willing to flip the “green panty night” into a “red panty night.”
Usman is consistent in his belief that McGregor would not be a great challenge, though. The current welterweight king thinks the McGregor we see before us today is basically a shell of the man he once was.
“Right now, it’s more of a loudmouth. He’s a loudmouth,” Usman reiterated. “It’s a guy that can compete, but he’s not the champion Conor McGregor. He’s not the double champion. He’s not that guy anymore. He’s just a guy that’s in the UFC that if he wasn’t Conor and hasn’t done the things that he’s done, he’d just be a regular (fighter).
“Probably the level of respect that he gets now is just he’s a regular fighter with a lot of money and a lot of hype and recognition. But the old Conor? The hungry Conor? That was the fighter that fighters respected. Now? Not that we don’t respect him at all. He’s still a UFC fighter. He’s just a regular fighter.”
Conor McGregor is currently set to face Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 264. Kamaru Usman is currently unbooked, but talk is beginning to grow of him exploring a boxing match against YouTuber Jake Paul.
Do you agree with Kamaru Usman? Is Conor McGregor a “regular fighter” now?
