Kenneth Afor
Kamarudeen Usman, the defending UFC Welterweight Champion, has explained that growing up in the village with other members of his family was tough as he came from a poor background.
He said before his rise to stardom, he hawked food on the streets in order to secure his next meal, adding that he came from nothing.
The mixed martial fighter said this in an interview on the Channels Television programme, Gist Nigeria.
The Nigerian Nightmare, 33, as he is popularly called, added that he and his family members struggled every day for survival.
He said: “We grew up in the village. We farmed. As a small boy, farm boy, I used to hawk Akpu, put hot Akpu on my head. I came from nothing.
“There is just struggle every day, the struggle to, how are we gonna eat next week, next month. What are we gonna do?
“We owned a small store where we sold clothes, we sold shoes, my mum sold bags, anything that we could sell, my mum was able to get and try to sell. My mum was a hustler and that is one of the things I respect so much about her as a woman with three rowdy Naija boys.”
The mixed martial fighter, whose father went to prison while he was still in college , further revealed that he cherishes the father-daughter bond he has with his five-year-old daughter, Samirah, who was once his gym partner and into gymnastics.
He, however, said he would not want his daughter to do his kind of sport.
“My daughter, Samirah, I love her to death. She’s very intriguing to me because from about six months to about three and half years of her life, she went to the gym with me every day. Then she hit about five years and then she started saying, ‘you know I’m not going to do this daddy, right. You know I’m not going to do this sport.
“I think I have to just accept that and honestly I don’t think I want her to this sport anyway. She’s got her thing, she’s doing gymnastics and for self-defence. She does Ju-Jitsu because she has to learn how to control the situation if anything happens. I’m okay with those right now,” he said.
He also revealed he is planning to fully move into commentary and analysis of mixed martial arts after retirement.
“Talking about the sport that I’ve spent so much time in, that’s a dream. So now instead of getting punched in the face, you are talking about people who are getting punched in the face. And so, it’s a dream for me but I’m slowly getting my feet wet in it and finding my ground because it is something I definitely want to do when I walk away from this sport,” he added.
Usman is scheduled to defend his belt in a rematch with Jorge Masvidal on 24 April in Jacksonville, Florida.
