Even if the two defeats against Leon Edwards are inevitably a stain on his CV, Kamaru Usman will remain, whatever happens, as one of the outstanding names of the modern era of MMA. However, if he had not become a professional fighter, the « Nigerian Nightmare« would have followed a completely different life. And no one saw it coming!
His great friend Francis Ngannou was the first to remind him: the recent defeats of Kamaru Usman, and more generally his possible decline, do not change his legend. King of the welterweight division between 2019 and 2022, the American-Nigerian has done enough to be respected by the vast majority of his peers, and rightly so.
The other totally improbable career that Kamaru Usman dreamed of
But if Usman hadn’t thrown his heart and soul into combat sports, what would he have done? This question arises for many fighters, some of whom come from tormented lives, sometimes in violence and criminality. For its part, the “Nigerian Nightmare” made a totally unexpected revelation at the microphone of Sports Illustrated:
It’s an easy question. If I wasn’t a UFC fighter, I’d be a marriage counselor. I am very passionate about this subject. There is no doubt for me that this is what I would do.
A healthy marriage is so important. It is also important for children and their development to have a foundation through a strong marriage of parents.
Far from octagons and violence, Kamaru Usman, who is also the father of a daughter born in 2014, would have seen himself in a cozy office, advising couples in search of stability or positive evolution in their wedding. A totally improbable dream professional career, and yet quite respectable, and assumed by the main interested party.
Among the other fighters polled by Sports Illustrated on this subject, the answers are much less fanciful. Leon Edwards, for example, readily acknowledges that MMA pulled him out of the violent and gangly life of his youth. “I would have stayed in this environment without MMA”, he confesses, lucid.
For his part, Justin Gaethje is convinced that he would have worked in the copper mines of Arizona, where he was born. His family has indeed worked in this environment for long generations, and, like his brother, “The Highlight” would have been happy to perpetuate the tradition if MMA had not been in his way.
All the fighters who make us dream today sometimes had many other projects in mind, but MMA took everything in their path. The good news is that nothing prevents Kamaru Usman from converting to marriage counseling at the end of his career. At least the reconversion is all mapped out!
