Kamaru Usman Discusses Potential Retirement from UFC After Dricus du Plessis Loss

After his loss to Dricus du Plessis last week, Kamaru Usman is considering calling it a career.

The UFC veteran said he's contemplating retirement.

"I have to sit with the team and assess the place where I'm at in my career, and just see whether it's worth continuing to do this," he said.

Usman lost to du Plessis via unanimous decision on July 18, marking his fourth loss in his last five fights. Before beating Joaquin Buckley last summer, he had lost a fight to Khamzat Chimaev and a pair of fights against Leon Edwards.

While he's struggled in recent years, he had previously been undefeated in 15 UFC fights dating back to his debut in 2015. He had a 20-1 overall record in MMA before losing to Edwards.

The loss to du Plessis led to him contemplating retirement because he felt he didn't represent his team "appropriately."

"Listen, I've never really gone out there and not represented them appropriately, myself and my coaches," Usman said (h/t MMA Fighting's Damon Martin). "This one was a hard one because I felt like I didn't do that. The Khamzat [Chimaev] fight, it's like I took that on a week's notice and if I had two more rounds, it's iffy, who knows what could have happened. The Leon [Edwards rematch], I think I represented myself well until that last minute took that kick to the head. The third one, I probably shouldn't have been in there but I pushed it, I said you know what I'm hard-headed, I'm going to go in [and fight] and halfway through that fight I found myself again.

"There was something to build off of for those fights. This one to the untrained eye, looks like I bit off more than I could chew. Just a fair and honest assessment. Even though I may not feel that on the inside, it looked that way and I don't like that."

Despite his recent shortcomings, Usman is one of the best welterweight fighters in UFC history. But at 39 years old, it's easy to understand why he feels it might be time to hang it up.

"This is just as difficult of a place to be, when we've achieved so much and you've got so much highs in the sport, when you start to feel the lows it's not that great," Usman said. "Because you hold yourself to a certain standard. So when you start to feel those things, it just puts you in a really difficult and really tough place to make a tough and potentially permanent decision."