Kamaru Usman thinks the path to a blockbuster clash with Dricus du Plessis is clear.
After coming up short in his last three outings, the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ returns to the Octagon this Saturday night for a high-stakes showdown with surging welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley at UFC Atlanta.
Despite his recent inactivity and a string of losses, Usman is potentially one impressive performance away from being right back in the title picture. But it’s not reclaiming the 170-pound title he’s concerned with. Sure, that’s part of the plan, but ultimately, the goal is to move up and conquer another weight class.
“My path there is pretty simple,” Usman told reporters during the UFC Atlanta media day. “I’ll just lay out the map here. I’ll finish Buckley this weekend and then wait for the winner of, I believe, Islam and JDM, which is going to be an incredible fight. It’s such a great thing now having Islam come up into the division. Who wouldn’t buy a ticket to that? Former pound-for-pound and current pound-for-pound. I love Islam. Islam is a great fighter. I think that’s something that we’d both remember forever.
“Win [against Islam] and then go ahead and probably vacate, go up. Myself vs. Dricus Du Plessis, if he is the champion, or Khamzat Chimaev, too, if Dricus is no longer the champion, we do that. If Dricus is the champion, we do that in the first card in Africa. That’s another blockbuster. These are back-to-back blockbuster fights you tell your grandkids about. Who wouldn’t watch those?”
Of course, accomplishing that goal means the 38-year-old Usman will have to go through a murderer’s row of UFC talent, and it all starts with Buckley, who has been stacking bodies inside the Octagon over the last two years.
