According to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, UFC 262 nearly had a second world title fight that would have consisted of him making the quick turnaround against Leon Edwards after Nate Diaz pulled out of the fight.
Last week, it was revealed that Nate Diaz had to withdraw from his UFC 262 co-main event against Leon Edwards on May 15. We now know that this fight will be rescheduled, but there may have been a chance that Edwards remained on the card after all and to even receive the world title shot he’s been calling for at that.
This is because Kamaru Usman’s competitive itch has still not been fully satisfied, so he strongly considered fighting again only one month after his last title defense against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261.
“I’m crazy in the sense to where as soon as I heard about (Diaz’s withdrawal), I just landed here in Atlantic City for my brother’s fight. And I’m quarantined in my room,” Usman began his narration in a recent ESPN interview. “And I hear about it. And I look around, and I look in the bathroom. So I pick up the phone, and I speak with my manager Ali, and I tell him, ‘Hey…” and he already knew what I was gonna say… I’m like, ‘Hey, I need to check my weight, and I’mma go put in some rounds in the morning. And depending on how I feel, we might be fighting next week.”
“And he goes, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, we might be fighting next week.'”
Ultimately, Usman was a bit too heavy and did not have an adequate amount of time to cut the weight and prepare for the undertaking. There is still a chance that Usman and Edwards compete on the same card, though, even if not against one another. The Edwards/Diaz bout will now take place on June 12 at UFC 263, and Usman would like to compete on this same card, ideally against Michael Chiesa, whom the champion believes to be the most deserving of the available welterweights.
What do you make of Kamaru Usman saying he was willing to defend his welterweight title against Leon Edwards on less than two weeks’ notice?
