Nigeria’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman has taken another angle in the build-up to his title defence against Jorge Masvidal on Saturday night (into early Sunday) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), as he says he would have loved his father to be present at cage-side, but the man he called his biggest mentor will be absent.
Megasportsarena.com gathered that Usman is filled with emotions and nostalgia, as he prepares to line up for the main event at UFC 251 in an empty arena on ‘Fight Island,’ where he feels sad that he will not have his father there to see him defend his belt, due to a rent jail term and flight restrictions caused by COVID-19.
‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ admitted he is sad that his father, Muhammed Usman, will not be able to attend the bout, despite being released from prison in Texas, USA in February, after serving a 180-month sentence, following his conviction in a health care fraud case.
The 33-year-old Usman has enjoyed five sterling years in his UFC career and holds massive a fan base all over the world, among which were inmates at USA’s Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville, Texas – due to the presence of his dad during his time in jail.
A report by ESPN revealed that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ had another line of followership added to his support base each time he fought in the UFC, as the Federal Correctional prisoners always cheered him on to victory, all through the 10 years his father, Muhammed Usman, served under the criminal charges of forgery.
Usman was yet to become a global sensation when his father was arrested in 2009, as he was pulled out by a SWAT Team and Federal agents, then charged with multiple criminal cases of health care frauds and for falsely claiming an ambulance company under his ownership.
He was arrested in the early hours of a summer day at his home near Dallas and the champ’s mother, Afishetu P. Usman, remembers the SWAT team pulling their 20-year-old son, Mohammed Jnr, from the entryway as he answered the door.
Federal agents took Muhammed into custody and charged him with multiple counts of health care fraud and knowingly submitting false claims; then, 11 months after his arrest, May 2010, a jury convicted him on 14 federal charges, carrying a 180-month prison sentence and $1.3m fine.
Dramatically, a month before his father’s trial began, Kamaru won an NCAA Division II national championship in wrestling for University of Nebraska at Kearney and, shortly after his collegiate wrestling career ended, he informed his dad of his interest in mixed martial arts (MMA), which led to his now successful professional career in the UFC.
During his period in jail, Muhammed Usman reportedly made a lot of friends and they used to watch Kamaru’s fights together in the prison, where there are six televisions for approximately 175 inmates housed in the satellite camp.
The report adds that televisions are made available from 6am to midnight on weekends – Fridays and Saturdays – but correctional officers can terminate viewing at any time if appropriate noise levels are not maintained.
However, almost every time Kamaru Usman fought, the minimum security satellite camp turned into a full-fledged cheering section, as all six televisions, which the inmates usually divided among smaller groups, were turned to the UFC broadcast.
Almost every inmate packed himself into the television room, leaving the library, dormitory and multi-purpose room empty, because fight nights were special in Seagoville, and Usman never let them down – because he has never lost a fight in the UFC.
Anytime Usman fought, the entire prison would be alive all through then go to bed buzzing over his victory and spend the next few days discussing details of the surge that made the fighter’s dad a hero of sort among the inmates.
That is the basis of sadness bugging ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ as he comes to grips with the fact that, while his dad had been watching him fight on basic cable television during his time in jail, he will not have the chance of seeing the champ defend his title live against Masvidal, who is a late replacement, after his original opponent contracted COVID-19.
Ironically, while Usman was reminiscing over what could have been for him and his father, had lockdown rules not stopped his dad from making the long trip for fight night in the Middle East, Masvidal took advantage of stopping over at Rome airport in Italy by eating some pizza on his private jet on his way to Abu Dhabi.
The massive challenger nicknamed ‘Gamebred’ was drafted in late to fight Usman at UFC 251 on Fight Island, after Gilbert Burns tested positive for coronavirus but, despite admitting he needed to shed some 20 pounds of weight, in order to be fit to fight at welterweight, the 35-year-old ace appears to be going footloose with his appetite.
On the other hand, it is with subdued emotions that Usman heads into the bout, as he admits he had been hoping that his dad would eventually get the chance to watch him fight live this summer and that he would be there in person for his next title defence, which he described as a culmination of everything he has done in the Octagon.
Usman said at the UFC virtual media day: “It’s good that he’s able to watch it at home live on pay-per-view, but it would have meant a lot if he was there with me. There’s a different fight that you fight with yourself that … can uplift you or be a detriment.
“But now you’ve got a guy beating your ass and talking to you, letting him know his dominance over you. It’s another level of breaking someone mentally. When you beat their ass from start to finish, it breaks them internally and takes something away that they can never get back.”
