Kamaru Usman defeated Emil Meek by unanimous decision a few months ago on the main card of UFC Fight Night St. Louis.
The fighter stated after the fight that he fought at about 30% and the comment drew a lot of anger from the MMA community, which Usman puts on the shoulders of UFC President Dana White.
“I meant I literally was maybe 30-percent of my abilities, which is what I stated, but of course, when you have a president that is so powerful like Dana White and he goes out in the media and says what he says, everyone just jumps on it. I swear if Dana says that, ‘You know what? An earthquake is going to happen tomorrow,’ everyone’s going to jump on it, ‘Oh, an earthquake’s going to happen tomorrow.’ That’s just the way that these UFC fans are. So once Dana said that, it was just the backlash of it and whatnot, but what I meant to say was I was at 30-percent health. Dana took it the wrong way, so fans took it the wrong way,” Usman said on The MMA Hour.
Usman competes for the first time since those comments, facing Santiago Ponzinibbio in the main event of UFC Fight Night Chile.
One thing that Usman can guarantee for his next Octagon appearance is that the fighter will give more than 30%.
“I am what I am, I don’t regret anything,” Usman said. “There’s a blessing in everything that happens to us. Yes, of course, it’s getting kind of old, because every time you look at one of my pictures, comments or anything like that, all fans seem to want to talk about is 30 percent, 30 percent, 30 percent. So after that Dana said, ‘Will you go 60 percent next time?’ He can expect me to go way more than 30 percent this next fight, that’s for sure.”
UFC Fight Night Chile takes place on Saturday, May 19 from the Movistsar Arena in Santiago, Chile with Kamaru Usman and Santiago Ponzinibbio headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
