Kamaru Usman open to moving up to 185lbs if Marvin Vettori beats Israel Adesanya at UFC 263

UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman says he would consider moving up to middleweight if Marvin Vettori beats Israel Adesanya at UFC 263.

Usman is coming off of an amazing KO win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 to pick up his 14th straight UFC win and come within two victories of tying Anderson Silva’s promotional record for most consecutive victories. He has been talking about making a quick turnaround for this summer and taking on Michael Chiesa or Colby Covington next, but as of right now we are still waiting for the UFC to announce Usman’s next fight. He took no damage against Masvidal and seems destined for another fight in the coming months.

While most figure Usman to stick around welterweight and break records, he has also talked about the possibility of moving up in weight in the past. With Adesanya as the UFC middleweight champion at the moment, Usman wouldn’t go up in weight to fight his friend. But if Adesanya just so happens to lose his belt to Vettori at UFC 263 next month, as Usman tells ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, that could trigger him taking a look at middleweight.

“With the whole Marvin and Israel situation, I don’t necessarily want to think about that. I’m 100 percent behind Izzy and I think he can pull it out. I love Marvin as well but I think Izzy can pull that one out. He’s done it before and I think he can and I think he will. But if there was a case to where I would actually go up and challenge for that belt it would be without Izzy being in the picture. So if Izzy’s not champ, then it’s something I could take a look at,” Usman said (h/t MMAFighting.com).

Do you want to see Kamaru Usman move up to middleweight?