"Kamaru Usman is bored" - Chael Sonnen speculates about Kamaru Usman's motivation to move up to fight for the UFC light heavyweight title

Chael Sonnen is of the impression that Kamaru Usman is talking about vying for the UFC light heavyweight belt is a by-product of him being bored.

On a recent episode of Beyond The Fight, Sonnen broke down aspects of this weekend's pay-per-view main event with 'The Nigerian Nightmare' rematching Leon Edwards on August 20 with the UFC welterweight title on the line.

Discussing Usman's unprecedented idea of leap frogging a division to become a two-weight category UFC champion, Sonnen said:

"Kamaru Usman is bored. Now that's rude. That's not a nice way to say it. Those are words that Kamaru has never used and if Kamaru heard me say it, he might even deny them. Kamaru may not know this about himself. He's talking about 205 pounds. He's talking about Canelo Alvarez. He's talking about these monumental challenges for a reason."

Sonnen continued talking about the move up by saying:

"To have a guy as cloaked in success as Kamaru Usman that he would walk away and go up to 205 pounds or he would leave the sport completely and go to boxing, I mean this is something very rare."

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A rematch between Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira is rumoured to be in the works for UFC 282 which is set for December 10. The idea of Usman possibly fighting the winner of that bout in 2023 if he gets his ideal outcome this weekend would create a truly wild moment in mixed martial arts history.

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Kamaru Usman and other two-division UFC champions

Kamaur Usman will be chasing the chance to occupy some rarefied air among the dual-division champions in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Randy Couture become the UFC heavyweight champion in December 1997 and became a two-division champion when he captured the interim UFC light heavyweight championship from Chuck Liddell at UFC 43 in June 2003.

BJ Penn had previously become UFC welterweight world champion at UFC 46 but then captured UFC lightweight gold in a clash with Joe Stevenson at UFC80.

Conor McGregor became UFC featherweight champion in lightning quick fashion and then won lightweight gold in one of the most polished UFC performances ever to become the first fighter in UFC history to become a double champ, i.e, holding belts in two weightclasses at the same time.

Georges St-Pierre established himself as the most tenured welterweight champion in UFC history before capturing the middleweight strap from Michael Bisping in 2017.

Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Henry Cejudo also find themselves in this elite company.