Kamaru Usman Confident Jorge Masvidal is Next Fight: ‘We Are at 100 Percent’

Kamaru Usman is quite confident that his next UFC welterweight title defense will come against Jorge Masvidal.

The promotion was initially targeting International Fight Week in July for the bout, but Masvidal revealed that there was a deal in place for the title bout to happen on short notice at UFC 249. Masvidal didn't like the financial terms offered and it ultimately didn’t matter, as the promotion was forced to indefinitely postpone all events due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Still, Usman believes that Masvidal will be his next foe once the UFC is operating again.

“We are at 100 percent,” Usman told ESPN. “This is the guy. I’ve said it over and over again: Anything you say about me, to me, can and will be used against you, and he has just stepped over that line to where it’s 100 percent. That’s the fight that I want. That’s the fight that makes sense. That is the next victim, and look at what they just pulled. I mean, look at the situation they just pulled. You ran your mouth. You said you wanted to fight. All right. Let’s do it.

“Then all of a sudden, oh, it wasn’t working out for you. It wasn’t working out for you, so you pulled out of the fight. So it sucks, but it is what it is. He for sure has won a date with me. He’s got a golden ticket with his name on it. He’s won a date. That’s the next guy that I’m going to step inside that octagon and put my hands on.”

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It’s unclear when the UFC will resume its schedule, although president Dana White has said that he will have “Fight Island” operational by May. Regardless of the venue, uncertain times make for short-notice fights, which Usman acknowledges can be difficult — especially when said fights can be canceled at a moment’s notice.

“It’s tough, especially for those guys that were prepared already to fight,” he said. “For someone like me, I fought four months ago, it works well for guys like myself. I’m always training. I’m always doing something. That makes it easier to be able to make that switch and say, ‘I can go in three weeks.’

“I think you have to stay ready in a sense. At the top of the game, when you’re continuously training at that peak level, you’re basically just tearing your body up if you don’t have a fight. You have to find that happy medium.”

If it were up to him, Usman would relish the opportunity to fight Masvidal on a deserted island.

“I want to fight him in an empty arena…I want to see how he’s going to react, stepping into the cage with me when there’s no fans around,” Usman said. “There’s no one to scream, no one to cheer for him – just him getting pummeled, taken down, dropped on his neck, dropped on his head. I might suplex him a couple times. I mean, Rustam Khabilov did all kinds of stuff to him, so I might just re-enact that.

“Absolutely, that ‘Fight Island’ sounds good. It doesn’t matter if there’s people there, if nobody’s there – it doesn’t matter. I get the same paycheck and [I’m] beating people up.”

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