Kamaru Usman discusses unreleased Belal Muhammad podcast clips and release tied to outcome of Shavkat Rakhmanov fight

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman just revealed that he and fellow former UFC champion Henry Cejudo have footage of Belal Muhammad as a guest on their podcast, Pound 4 Pound. This is quite the news as Muhammad, the current UFC welterweight champion, is on a lengthy online beef with Usman.

This was a talking point in an episode of Pound 4 Pound uploaded today. Kamaru Usman said that the interview went exactly how an interview between two budding rivals would - not very nice.

Usman said:

"The last time we were in Vegas, of course we had a lot of different guests, like we have this time. A lot of interesting guests on. And out of respect, we wanted to have Belal [Muhammad] on the podcast to show our respect...He was a new champion, so to show our respect, come on the podcast. And he did come on the podcast."

He added:

"In typical Belal fashion, of course Belal did Belal. The interview didn't go as planned. It wasn't that great of an interview anyways. It wasn't that long. But it went the way that it went. And that [winning a UFC title] was the biggest moment of his life because that's all that he seems to want to talk about...But if he's able to get through Shavkat Rakhmanov and we run super super low on content, why not [drop the interview]."

Listen to what he said here (3:08):

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Kamaru Usman revealed Francis Ngannou called him right after his son Kobe's death

Another interesting part of the episode was when Kamaru Usman spoke about his friend and fellow African-born MMA star, Francis Ngannou. Last weekend, Ngannou returned to MMA after a year-long stint in boxing with a win. 'The Predator' dismantled the bigger Renan Ferreira to claim the PFL heavyweight Superfight world title.

The win was just months after Ngannou's son, 15-month-old Kobe, died because of a brain malformation. Usman revealed that his African comrade called him the day Kobe died, saying (41:21):

"So I answer the phone...I said, 'Yo, my brother, every time we see each other I need to see a smile on your face.' And he just shakes his head. 'No, I can't smile.' I'm like, 'What's wrong?' He's like, 'He's gone.' And he tells me that he lost his son, and my heart just dropped."

Kamaru Usman then praised Ngannou for pulling off the win despite just months after a devastating tragedy in his life, saying (41:31):

"We all have journeys in this life. Each and everyone of us, we have our story. Our life is a book. It's a scroll. It's a story we're writing each and every day. And the story this man has [written] already, and this man continues to write, is more than incredible."

Just over a month before losing his son, Francis Ngannou was knocked out for the first time courtesy of Anthony Joshua in a boxing fight. To win in such a devastating TKO fashion after these adversities should help him feel better.