“There’s a lot of underlining things that I’m not happy with. Certain things. When you’re working for a company and the boss comes out and criticizes you publicly, it kind of opens the door for everything else.
If we’re gonna have a talk and you’re gonna criticize me, I’m gonna have you tell me that. It’s constructive criticism. I like to hear constructive criticism. I’m based on that. I want to be able to mold myself and continue to improve and know what your issues are with me and what your issues are not with me and how I can improve with those things.
It’s like someone doing something wrong but you never tell them what they were doing for them to fix it. I just think we need to have that sit down and kind of clear the air and get things out.”
Kamaru Usman is one of the UFC welterweight division’s brightest rising contenders. Having never tasted defeat in the Octagon, Usman rides an impressive eight-fight win streak under the UFC umbrella(12 in total).
But with a rise in status always comes critique. Sometimes coming from people you wouldn’t expect. Thus being the case with Usman and UFC president, Dana White.
After Usman defeated Emil Meek at UFC St Louis in January, his post-fight speech stirred up anger among some viewers. It was a dominant wrestling performance by Usman but when saying in his post-fight interview that he was only at 30 percent, it didn’t help. White commented to MMAJunkie after that fight saying the following.
“I didn’t love that fight. Yeah, he’s a tough guy. Yeah, he can impose his will. But you don’t jump up and start acting like you knocked somebody out and say you only went 30 percent. So what’s that mean? What if you’re on pay-per-view? Do you use 60 percent?
It’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard somebody say, and you’re getting booed out of the arena on top of it. I don’t know. We’ll see what’s next for him.”
What ended up being next for Usman was a main event matchup with Demian Maia who he defeated this past month by unanimous decision.
Usman did clarify his 30 percent statement saying that that was a health percentage, not an effort percentage.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/4/2018.
