Kamaru Usman doesn’t consider the UFC’s BMF belt to be a real title.
The BMF title has recently attracted attention after current BMF champ Max Holloway was knocked out for the first time in his career in a failed title bid against featherweight champ Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 last weekend. While Holloway’s BMF strap was not on the line, “El Matador” was seen carrying the BMF belt along with his featherweight gold strap after the fight. UFC CEO Dana White also said that midway through the fight he was wondering why he didn’t put the BMF title on the line as well.
However, former middleweight champ Usman believes the BMF title isn’t worth this much discussion. According to “The Nigerian Nightmare,” the BMF belt is a hypothetical championship that was made because of him. Jorge Masvidal became the first BMF champ with a doctor stoppage win over Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in 2019. According to Usman, he was originally supposed to defend his welterweight title for the first time against Colby Covington at UFC 244 in Madison Square Garden. Usman claims the UFC made up BMF title for Masvidal and Diaz, as headlining MSG without a title fight wouldn’t make sense.
“Why are we talking about this like this is a real title? It’s not,” Usman said on the Pound 4 Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo. “This was a hypothetical that was made up because of me… Myself and Covington were supposed to fight in MSG in New York. The fight didn’t happen. They needed a fight to headline that card. They needed something with some steam. It’s MSG. You can’t just put any fight card at MSG. You gotta come correct when you go to MSG. So, at that point, what’s the hottest ticket out there? Yes, Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal… And of course, you have Nate Diaz with his mystique that he always carries, it’s Nate Diaz… Dana jumps on, ‘How do we promote this fight? Let’s create this, al lright, it’s called the baddest motherf’er belt…’ Come on. Are you serious? That’s why it started.”
Usman went on to defend his strap against Covington via technical knockout at UFC 245 in December 2019, setting off a dominant title reign that ended with another successful defence against “Chaos” at UFC 268 in 2021. Usman has since gone on a three-fight slump that includes consecutive title losses against Leon Edwards followed by a majority decision loss against Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight.
Usman also noted that all three BMF champs in UFC history — Masvidal, Justin Gaethje and Holloway — went on to lose their next fights via knockout.
