Products You May Like
“It means a lot; it means he’s starting to see and recognize (what I’m doing and what I’m chasing),” Usman said when asked about White’s comments and lofty projections for him. “I think he’s starting to understand that I’m that guy who has always been willing to fight. I’ve never said, ‘No, I’m not fighting that guy,’ and I think he respects that.
“We live in an era — a social media era — where a lot of guys are loud and boisterous or into the whole entertainment aspect of this,” continued Usman, framing things in a wider context. “I got into this sport because it gave me another opportunity to compete and that’s all I wanted to do.”
Winning is all Usman has done since losing the second fight of his professional career, thanks to a devastating mix of natural talent, work ethic, toughness, heart, an inextinguishable competitive fire, and some veteran guidance from his “big brother” Rashad Evans.
“I was going into my third fight, which was about eight months after the fight I had lost. At that point, I was living with Rashad and he had 19 or 20 wins and maybe one or two losses, and I was thinking to myself, ‘How do I get to the point where I have that many wins?
“At that point, I was looking at how hard it was to train and get to another fight, so I’m thinking, ‘That’s impossible; how am I going to get to 10 wins?’ because I see how stressful it is. I talked to Rashad and he was like, ‘You take it one fight at a time, and you’ll be surprised where you end up.’”
That third fight came against Rashid Abdullah at VFC 41 in Ralston, Nebraska. Usman won by first-round technical knockout midway through the 15-fight card that also featured a host of former and future UFC competitors, including Mirsad Bektic, Jason Brilz, and Anthony Smith.