It’s comeback season for a certain Kamaru Usman.

The former UFC welterweight champion has seen better days in his career, going from an undefeated UFC record and five title defenses to a knockout defeat and losing twice more afterward.

Still, Usman isn’t in such a bad situation, as he’s #2 in the welterweight rankings and arguably ranked #2 when it comes to the greatest welterweight conversation of all time behind Georges St-Pierre. That said, a title shot could be next for Usman following a welterweight booking between Belal Muhammad and Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 that saw champion Muhammad withdraw due to a blood infection. the toe.

UFC drops 2 more fighters, including a former champion

On Monday, Rakhmonov proposed the idea of ​​​​fighting for the interim title The Ariel Helwani Showlocking in the “worthy” Usman as a potential opponent for his first fight since a submission victory over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in December.

Less than 24 hours later, Usman would hint at his own comeback story…

“Troublemaker! Coming soon,” Usman wrote on Instagram.

Before Rakhmonov was booked to fight Muhammad, Usman was in the conversation for the next welterweight title fight given the lack of a clear #1 contender and his work in the division with TKO stoppages against Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Brûle.

However, Usman is not alone at the top of the rankings, with fighters such as former foe Leon Edwards, Jack Della Maddalena, Sean Brady, Ian Machado Garry, Joaquin Buckley likely a win or two away from a title themselves- same, with Usman being perhaps the only contender willing and available to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov on short notice at UFC 310.

Time will tell, however, whether “The Nigerian Nightmare” will become the first fighter to earn a title shot after three consecutive defeats.

An interim title isn’t all it takes since Muhammad won the belt in July and was set to defend it four months later, but we’ve seen interim titles created for short-term main events before, like with Ciryl Gane vs. Derrick Lewis. for the interim heavyweight championship at UFC 265 after Francis Ngannou apparently asked the UFC to defend his title a month later.

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