“I don’t think size matters in fighting,” Kamaru Usman Breaks Down Upcoming UFC Welterweight Title Match

Kamaru Usman doesn’t discount Islam Makhachev’s chances moving up in weight to fight welterweight titleholder Jack Della Maddalena. The former UFC lightweight champion who vacated his belt to now fight for JDM’s gold will get his chance to become a two division UFC champion at Madison Square Garden on November 15th.

During an interview with Submission Radio, the former kingpin of 170 pounds offered up his thoughts on the next championship fight in the division he once loomed large over. When discussing the machinations of this matchup at UFC 322, Usman said,

“I don’t think size matters in fighting. Islam might be small, but that gives him more endurance now that he’s not cutting all that weight. Fighting doesn’t matter if you’re smaller or bigger. The only place it really matters is grappling if someone’s laying on you and putting all their weight on you. I don’t think that’s going to be a factor.”

Kamaru Usman wants the winner of the UFC 322 headliner

Kamaru Usman isn’t just someone who is purely wearing an analyst hat when looking at the Islam Makhachev versus Jack Della Maddalena contest. Usman also has an eagerness to fight the victor of that championship fight and indicated as such during a separate interview with MMA Junkie.

After a statement win over Joaquin Buckley in his last outing, Usman is certainly positioned well to get another crack at the gold and when he expounded upon his future desired goals, Usman stated [via MMA Junkie],

“A lot of people had a lot of questions: ‘Can he still fight? Is he still this guy? Is he still this way?’ I hope I proved that to everyone [against Buckley]. I have my eye on this weekend. We’ll see who comes out victorious [Della Maddalena or Makhachev]. I think it’s a big fight, it’s a good fight, it’s a tough fight for both guys.”

“I’m sitting here looking at the winner like, ‘All right, let’s run it.’ I’m in a position now to where I want the biggest, most challenging fights out there, because I understand that I don’t have another 20 fights left in the company. Anything could happen, so if you can get that next one and it could be that fight, then that’s what I want.”