Usman laments lack of takers; expects to fight Ponzinibbio instead of Till
One would think fights should be relatively easy to come by when you make a living in the hurt business. Kamaru Usman says otherwise.
The highly touted welterweight has long lamented the lack of fellow contenders willing to share the cage with him, with both he and manager Ali Abdelaziz taking to Twitter recently to allege that the divisional elites have been turning down fights with him left and right. Another fast-rising fighter in Darren Till has entered Usman's crosshairs of late, but as much as the latter would like to duke it out with the Scouser in the UFC's May visit to Till's native Liverpool, a proper glance at the welterweight landscape tells Usman he'll be facing a different streaking striker next.
With much of the top welterweights either nursing injuries or holding out for a date with reigning champ Tyron Woodley, and with the UFC looking to break new ground in both Liverpool and South America, Usman believes his next dance partner will be Argentina's Santiago Ponzinibbio - the presumed front-runner to headline the UFC's upcoming bill in Chile on May 19.
"If he (Ponzinibbio) wasn’t headlining he's a shoo-in as the guy you throw at Darren Till. It's a shoo-in," Usman told MMAjunkie's Mike Bohn recently. "But they’ve already scheduled him to headline Chile, and now you've got Darren Till scheduled to headline Liverpool. So they’re two hype trains that the UFC doesn’t want to derail because they want to, later on this year, take Ponzinibbio to Argentina to headline a card in his home country. So it would suck for him to get his ass beat in Chile before you go to Argentina. Same with Darren Till. It would suck for him to go break ground in his home town and have him get his ass beat.
"So basically they're doing everything they can to keep these guys winning, but someone has to take the bullet because no one above us will fight us. So either you throw Santiago at me or you throw Darren at me. I believe they see more value with Darren Till, so chances are they’re going to try to throw Santiago at me if they can’t find anybody else. So I would say there's probably a negative 100 percent chance I get Darren Till in Liverpool."
The UFC ditched Dublin to have Till headline the bill in his hometown - a clear sign of its investment in a fighter billed as the leader of MMA's new British guard. And the way Usman sees it, despite their proximity in the promotion's rankings, the brass would rather keep Till from facing him out of fear that its investment will end up in the red.
"Darren Till has five fights in the UFC - 4-0-1," Usman said. "You have a draw. Someone who's probably not in the UFC anymore has a draw with you in the UFC. And one of those fights you did not make weight for. And another one was a close decision. Then he beat another guy (Donald Cerrone) who is a lightweight, who has openly said he wanted to make the cut back down to lightweight because he can’t handle these big guys up here.
"You beat a lightweight, and everyone’s acting like Darren Till’s the greatest fighter on the planet. He’s walking around talking about his legacy because he beat one guy. One lightweight, then you’re talking about creating a legacy? You haven’t even fought a real welterweight yet, and everyone’s acting like he’s the biggest thing. And the UFC’s doing everything in their power to keep him away from me."
Usman has won all seven of his promotional bouts - three more than Till, who sits one spot above him as the UFC's seventh-seeded welterweight. "The Nigerian Nightmare" was last seen taking a one-sided decision over Emil Meek at UFC Fight Night 124 in January, and while his next fight isn't set, he's training as if it is, as both Ponzinibbio and Till are expected to take the Octagon in two months' time.