Kamaru Usman is back in action this Saturday, competing for the first time since 2023. And while he doesn’t necessarily love being back in training camp, “it feels great to be back to all of this,” he said ahead of UFC Atlanta, where he headlines opposite Joaquin Buckley.
“With the time off it really puts things in perspective of just how blessed we are to experience something like this,” Usman, a former UFC welterweight champ, said during the event’s media day. “So I’m just thankful.”
The opportunity to heal some injuries and take some time off after being “pretty active there for X amount of years, even as champion” is what prevented Usman from coming back sooner. “You kind of get to a place where, maybe we can take a breath here and see what’s next.”
Now, Usman is ready to fight for the first time since a middleweight bout against Khamzat Chimaev. Despite Buckley calling him out, the ex-champ didn’t necessarily expect the fight to be made. “There was a time where it could have been Shavkat [Rakhmonov], there was a time where it could have been potentially JDM [Jack Della Maddalena, who now holds gold at 170lbs,” noted Usman. “It didn’t matter to me, it was just, I wanted to get in here and feel that competition again. And Buckley has done a phenomenal job with putting himself in a place where he is able to get a fight like this.”
What’s keeping Usman in the game, and getting him back in action at age 38 and off a three-fight losing skid, appears to be two-fold. It boils down the prize, and competition for competition’s sake.
“Being 100% honest, absolutely. Of course. I want to be champion. If you don’t want to be champion, what are you doing?” Usman questioned. “This is not, let’s go outside, let’s shoot hoops, play a basketball game. If you don’t want to be champ, what are you doing? So absolutely that is in the peripheral, that is what I want.”
“But I would also say, being fully honest, there is a feeling that you get from competition that you can’t explain, that is more powerful than anything else,” he continued. “It’s that feeling of working as hard as possible, as you possibly can and going out there and knowing that this man worked as hard as he possibly could, and you getting the best of him, being able to best that man. Because that feeling is so addictive, and I want to feel that a couple more times before I transcend into something else.”
Watch the full UFC Atlanta media day appearance by Kamaru Usman above.
