Kamaru Usman is not happy with the narrative that he shied away from facing Shavkat Rakhmonov.

When Rakhmonov (15-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) lost out on his title fight against welterweight champion Belal Muhammad in Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, “Nomad” called for Usman as a replacement.

Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) said he was potentially going to slide into the fight, but it was Ian Machado Garry (18-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) that ended up stepping in to face Rakhmonov in a five-round co-main event (pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

“I’m seeing online people go, ‘Oh, you scared? You ducked him?’ Like, what? This is the same sentiment that I feel like people are doing to Jon Jones,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Henry Cejudo. “It’s just like when people, where your fans, or fans of a fighter, don’t get their desired wish that they want, ‘That’s the fight I want,’ then it’s like, ‘Oh, no, that guy must be scared because he didn’t take the fight.’ Like guys, shut up!

“We step in there each and every time. I have (24) fights. World champion and defended belts time and time again, ‘Oh, he’s scared.’ Yeah, shut up. Just because you didn’t get what you wanted? Guess what, it’s like your mom telling you, ‘No, you can’t have that toy today.’ You know, ‘You can’t have that toy so shut your mouth.’ Instead, we’ve got a banging fight. We’ve got Shavkat Rakhmonov taking on Ian Garry.”

Usman’s most recent outing was on short notice against another undefeated phenom in middleweight contender Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in October 2023. The former UFC welterweight champion pushed Chimaev to the brink in a majority decision loss. While he was champion, Usman also accepted a fight with Jorge Masvidal on six days’ notice in July 2020 at UFC 251.

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