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Kamaru Usman's stock is at an all-time high following his big win over Colby Covington in the final PPV of the decade. As many had hoped, Covington was dramatically finished via TKO in what was arguably one of the fights of the year.
After his fight against Covington, Usman said that he was the most mentally tough person in the division and the fight proved that. There's no denying that he's the best Welterweight on the planet and the toughness and grit he showed at UFC 245 only proved that.
Ben Funky Askren recently retired from MMA after 2 consecutive losses in his 3-fight UFC career. It answered the question as to whether he belonged in the top and it's ok because Askren still had an undeniable impact.
Many believe that he should get into a commentary or analysis role due to his skills on the mic and he took to Twitter recently to critique Kamaru Usman for what he said after his fight at UFC 245 (H/T Bjpenn.com)
“The first question to [Usman] is, ‘over the past X amount of months since this fight’s been signed, did Colby’s trash talk get to you at all.'” Askren said in a video posted to his social media channels.
[Usman] essentially answers, ‘no it did not, I am the most mentally tough guy in this division.’
He said that two questions later, Usman contradicted himself:
“Then, two questions later, they ask some question — I should probably search this — about why Colby was getting the better of him early on. [Usman] said something like like ‘I got too emotional.'”
Askren then pointed this out and said that people don't want to be lied to.
Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Askren said. “You just tried to say in the first question that you don’t get shook at all and it didn’t bother you, and then two questions later you admit that you got emotional and it did bother you. It’s really simple. People don’t want to be lied to. They don’t want to be lied to! People want genuineness.”
Askren said that Usman should have just admitted that Covington's trash talk bothered him and that it felt good - which would be genuinely relatable to people as everyone has an annoying person they want to punch, but not everyone gets to do it on national TV.
He felt that whether he admits it or not, people can sense a lack of genuineness from Usman and that's why he isn't able to get the traction that he would have hoped. However, all said and done, Usman's popularity has rapidly grown since his win over Covington - which is by far the biggest of his career.
