Israel Adesanya didn’t appreciate Kamaru Usman’s manager publicly pushing for a fight that would turn two of the UFC’s self-styled “Three Kings” against one another.
The Nigerian-born Adesanya and Usman, as well as Cameroon native Francis Ngannou, are the only three African-born fighters to ever hold UFC titles. They are the only three African-born fighters to hold the UFC title simultaneously. This has led to a golden era in African MMA. The champions pledged support and vow not to fight in the group.
So it’s not surprising that Adesanya bristled when Usman’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, publicly called for Usman to move up in weight to challenge for Adesanya’s 185-pound title if Usman gets past top welterweight contender Leon Edwards in his likely return later this summer.
“It bothered [City Kickboxing head coach] Eugene [Bareman] as well, and it bothered me,” Adesanya said in a recent in-studio appearance on The MMA Hour. I’m just like “What the hell is that peanut head talking about?” Since I have made it clear that I do not want to fight. We don’t want this fight, because it’s bigger than us. I understand where he’s coming from, don’t get me wrong. I get where he is coming from. There are many other options. You have many more fights. He said that he was being selfish, but I think that’s fair. He should also give back his phone to his fighters, as Kamaru said. Sometimes he talks all the nonsense and gets onto it.
“This fight is not just going to happen just because, ‘Oh, it needs to happen, we need to see it.’ Nah, it’s bigger than us. We have three champions in Africa right now, defending their respective divisions and ruling with their iron fists. This is legendary. This is history. Not sports history, they’re going to talk about this in sports history and just history in general. [ruin it]? Why not? We’re going to divide and conquer. So, Kamaru is his own person, Kamaru tells him when to f*ck off too.”
Adesanya (22-1) and Usman are both undefeated in the UFC at their respective weight classes, with “The Last Stylebender” winning all 11 of his middleweight bouts and Usman racking up a perfect 15-0 record at 170 pounds since making his promotional debut in 2015. The two natives of Nigeria are currently the two longest-reigning and most dominant male champions in the UFC today, with their nine combined title defenses dwarfing the number of shared title defenses for the UFC’s other six male champions (4).
Their collective success has been both unprecedented and historic in a sport where African-born fighters hadn’t found much mainstream success before their runs.
So Adesanya’s question to Abdelaziz is simple: Why ruin that?
” When I meet Ali, he will be friendly and cordial. He’s never [not], there’s no static. He is just doing his job. But that? Eugene knows how we feel about that,” Adesanya said.
“The way peanut head did it was just disgusting, and Eugene kind of expressed how we do it in our gym and the code that we have. And like I said, me and Kamaru definitely feel the same way. What’s the point? It is larger than we are. Kids are going to look at us generations from now and be like, ‘Those guys from Nigeria, they did that. They ruled. They ruled this whole thing until they left, and the left on top.’ Same with Francis as well. It’s a mystery to me why he [did that].. He always says to me “Oh, my brother.” This and that, my African brother. So I’m like, why? If you’re supposed to be a ‘brother, brother,’ why are you trying to be selfish now and look at the dollar signs?”
