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Kamaru Usman recently heaped praise on former foe Colby Covington for challenging him as a fighter. The praise came as a surprise, especially considering they were involved in a heated rivalry.
'The Nigerian Nightmare' and 'Chaos' fought twice, with both fights living up to the hype and worthy of their main event slot. Usman earned a fifth-round TKO in their first encounter and then earned a unanimous decision in their rematch to successfully retain his welterweight championship on both occasions.
During his appearance on WEIGHING IN, the former UFC welterweight champion lavished praise on his former foe and described how the rivalry made him a better fighter. Usman mentioned that Covington was an excellent opponent because it resulted in him challenging himself to become a better fighter. He said:
"I know people can't believe the fact that I would...Credit to Colby Covington, because I'm used to hearing all the time where people say, 'you need a dance partner'. You need a great dance partner and he was that to where in that first fight...it was so much tension to where it challenged me so much to prepare...train and to go out there, you just get locked into this zone...That zone where it's just like I don't care what happens."
Check out Kamaru Usman's comments below:
Kamaru Usman explains importance of being self-motivated
In addition to heaping praise on Colby Covington for being a great challenge that motivated him, Kamaru Usman also explained the importance of being self-motivated.
During the aforementioned appearance, Usman mentioned that he remained disciplined and learned early in his career that self-motivation is important in order to achieve success. He said:
"[A nemesis] is a great thing to have. For me, I always learned very early on that I'm very self-motivated, I am. But I learned very early on that it's a fight against myself. I always want to prove myself wrong and a lot of these fights it was me shocking myself that, 'wow, I really was able to do that. I really fought the battle in my mind to do that.'" [14:41 - 15:10]
Check out the full episode with Kamaru Usman below:
