UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman speaks on fighting his friend, Adesanya

Nigerian-born UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, has ruled out any possibility of fighting his compatriot and middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.

The Nigerian Nightmare stated this while responding to a question by ESPN, on whether he is considering stepping up to 185 pounds.

According to Usman who beat Gilbert Burns 34 seconds into the third round at UFC 258 – taking his record to 18-1, defending his title for the third time, and broke Georges St Pierre’s consecutive welterweight victories record in the process -, he would “rather two Africans with belts as opposed to one African with two belts”.

However, Usman said he would ‘absolutely’ step up to the middleweight if his friend Israel Adesanya move up to the light heavyweight. He made it clear that he “would never entertain going up to fight Izzy”.

It is likely that Adesanya will step up a weight class to fight Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title.

Should he be successful, he may vacate his middleweight title in the future and give Usman the opportunity to challenge for the 185 pound belt.

But if Adesanya chooses to keep hold of both his belts, Usman has made it clear he will not ‘even entertain’ the idea of moving up a weight category to challenge his friend.

“Absolutely, absolutely. If Izzy’s willing to move up – well he is moving up, but if he’s willing to give up that 185 belt and says “I have nothing to do with that anymore”, then absolutely I would entertain that thought,” the Usman told ESPN.

“On no account right now would I ever entertain going up to fight Izzy. That’s just not something that I’m interested in.

“I’ve stated over and over before, I’d rather two Africans with belts as opposed to one African with two belts.

“After March, it’s going to be three Africans with four belts. It’s a good time to be an African.”