Usman targets Strickland or Makhachev title shot with upset win over Du Plessis at UFC Oklahoma City

Kamaru Usman has made his ambitions clear ahead of Saturday’s middleweight main event at UFC Oklahoma City: beat Dricus du Plessis at the Paycom Center and the next stop has to be a world title.

“Sean Strickland,” Usman said at media day when asked what a win would mean for his career. “I mean, that makes sense. That’s pretty easy. It’s either Sean Strickland or Islam [Makhachev], if Islam is still the champion, which I assume he will be.”

The former welterweight champion enters Saturday’s bout as a significant underdog against Du Plessis, who is returning to the octagon for the first time since losing the middleweight title to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 this past August. For Usman, it marks a return to 185 pounds, a division where he previously faced Chimaev on short notice at UFC 294 in October 2023, dropping a close majority decision.

Usman’s road back has been a long one. He picked up his first win in nearly four years 13 months ago, a lopsided decision over Joaquin Buckley in the UFC Atlanta main event. That victory prompted calls from Usman for a welterweight title shot against Makhachev, but with a crowded contender queue at 170 pounds, the UFC steered him toward a different opportunity.

When asked whether the path to a title is simpler at middleweight, Usman pushed back on the framing. “I wouldn’t say easier,” he said. “I think it just fit. It just made sense. I obviously wanted the Islam fight. We talked about that and I thought that was what was going to be next, but unfortunately, in these things like this, the company kind of has a big say in this and they felt this was an opportunity.”

Usman acknowledged the depth of both divisions, name-checking Jared Cannonier, Nassourdine Imavov, and Caio Borralho as examples of the challenges waiting at middleweight. “All of these guys are extremely tough,” he said, “just like Prates and Morales and all these guys at 170. Hey, it is what it is.”

A win over a former middleweight champion in Du Plessis would represent the biggest result of Usman’s comeback and, by his own reckoning, the clearest argument yet for a shot at a third UFC title in a second weight class.