Kamaru Usman convinced he could beat Islam Makhachev: 'I'm telling you guys'

Kamaru Usman thinks he’s the right matchup to dethrone UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Makhachev (29-1 MMA, 18-1 UFC) broke the record for most consecutive victories in UFC history when he successfully defended his belt vs. Ian Machado Garry in Saturday’s UFC 330 main event at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

Usman (21-5 MMA, 16-4 UFC) was previously campaigning to fight Makhachev, but the promotion went with Machado Garry. Usman moved up to middleweight to fight former champion Dricus Du Plessis at UFC Fight Night 281 instead, which didn’t go his way. While he knows getting Makhachev is a tough sell, he sees his skillset posing the biggest problems out of any welterweight.

“There are really, really good guys coming up that are going to turn into killers,” Usman said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast. “Good guys, I understand that, but right now, being honest with you, with all the styles that I see and the MMA mathematics, how it works out, I felt that, hey, styles make fights. I’m telling you guys I can get that done. Everyone’s like, ‘You don’t deserve it.’ Listen, I get it. I understand. I took a step back, and it is what it is. I said I’ll just sit out for a while and then obviously took the chances, and we know how that went.”

Usman never thought Machado Garry (17-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) was the rightful No. 1 contender.

“Looking at the landscape of things: First of all, I said of course Ian says these things because he’s either trying to convince himself or he does truly believe that he’s capable of doing these things,” Usman continued. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but based on my observation and what I see from these guys, I didn’t think Ian was the No. 1 guy to get that shot.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Kamaru Usman convinced he could beat Islam Makhachev: ‘I’m telling you guys’