UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and welterweight champ, Kamaru Usman, showed solidarity in their stance on not wanting to fight one another in a potential super-fight one day.
Adesanya recently spoke with TSN's Aaron Bronsteter ahead of his rematch with former UFC middleweight champion, Robert Whittaker, in the main event of this weekend's UFC 271 event and made it clear that he doesn't want to fight Usman because for him, what the two African born champions can do together alongside current UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou, is bigger than any money a matchup could bring for the pair.
“Kamaru can speak for himself and he has, and I’ve spoken for myself and we said we wouldn’t fight each other,” Adesanya said (h/t MMA Junkie). “For me personally, it’s bigger than money. Also, I have nothing to gain. It’s the guy coming up from a lower-weight class that looks to challenge himself that’s almost the protagonist of the story. That gets to rise to the occasion and that’s cool, but Kamaru’s not interested. Ali (Abdelaziz) is just greedy. He sees dollar signs, but I’m like you can make that money elsewhere. But he’s just super greedy and for me, it’s bigger than money. If I was gonna do this sh*t for money and retire, I would have retired three fights ago. I’m set, but nah, it’s bigger than money. It’s just about legacy. I’m still looking to capture that image of me, Kamaru, and Francis as the three kings because we haven’t done that yet together. It’s not just about money. It’s about our nation, taking gold back to where it belongs.”
Adesanya on why an Usman bout doesn't interest him: "It's bigger than money, it's just about legacy, I'm still looking to capture that image of me, Kamaru and Francis as the three kings, because we haven't done that yet together"
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) February 9, 2022
Full interview: https://t.co/2VYvVJ4Y0M pic.twitter.com/gmjymi1Jjy
Usman backed those sentiments spoken from Adesanya during an appearance on The Jim Rome Show this week, where he also said the fight doesn't interest him, and it would take an offer in the range of $100 million from the UFC for him to even entertain the matchup.
“I’ve said it before, as long as Israel Adesanya is the champion, I have no interest in going there,” Usman said (h/t MMA Fighting). “I’ve said it before, Adesanya’s a fellow Nigerian. A good guy. I like him, I like his approach. I’ve said it — I’d rather two Nigerians have belts than one Nigerian with two belts. If Dana [White] is willing to sit us down and say, $100 million, ‘Hey guys, let’s split this up,’ at that point Israel and I would have to talk. Because at that point, my little brother, my blood brother, we would have to talk and say, ‘Hey, let’s go out here and make this money.’”
UFC Welterweight champ @Usman84kg on his future plans. pic.twitter.com/IN2AqSvbrn
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) February 9, 2022
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