"And people wonder why he wanted to fight with Canelo" - Fans react to Kamaru Usman's meager purse compared to Canelo's $45 million payday for 'GGG' trilogy
MMA fans have finally understood why Kamaru Usman has been chasing a super-fight against Canelo Alvarez after a post on Instagram compared the purses of both combatants.
The former welterweight champion was pretty vocal about his pursuit of a fight against the Mexican boxing icon. The Instagram page, CombaTalk, pointed out that while Usman made an estimated $1.8 million for his fight with rival Colby Covington, Canelo Alvarez made a whopping $45 million in his third fight with Gennady Golovkin.
The former pound-for-pound No.1-ranked UFC fighter and illustrious puglist have traded verbal jibes at each other in the past. However, the idea of the fight was consigned to oblivion after Usman lost his welterweight throne to Leon Edwards at UFC 278.
Fans reacted to Kamaru Usman's meager purse compared to Canelo's $45 million payday under the comments section of the post. One fan claimed that it shouldn't be a surprise that Usman wanted to box Canelo:
"And people wonder why he wanted to fight with Canelo.''
Another fan claimed that UFC President Dana White should reconsider the fighter's pay structure:
"They just need dana to up the pay already for these fighters."
Some fans made sense of why so many MMA fighters want to box Jake Paul:
"Now they know why MMA fighters chose to fight Jake Paul."
Check out some of the best fan reactions below:
Why did Kamaru Usman want to box Canelo Alvarez?
Kamaru Usman was reigning supreme in the welterweight division with five title defenses. His run came to an end when Leon Edwards knocked him out with a vicious headkick in their rematch at UFC 278.
'The Nigerian Nightmare' wanted to book his chances for a mega-fight against Canelo Alvarez for the longest time. He had even floated the idea ahead of his rematch against bitter-rival Colby Covington at UFC 268.
Canelo Alvarez asked about being called out by UFC pound-for-pound king Kamaru Usman: “Payday, payday.”
While a crossover fight of that stature against two of the very best in their primes intrigued fans, Usman claimed that there's a competitive angle that drives him to chase the fight:
“Talk about legacy, look what I’ve done to this point. When I’m done and I walk away, the guys are going to look back and say, 'Wow, he was special.' Just like we’ve done with some of the greats. So if I’m looking at legacy, I want to do something that’s never been done before. These guys [MMA fighters] don’t really scare me anymore.''
He added:
“Of course, there is the fear of myself and not competing and not looking the way that I want to look but what scares me is since when have we ever seen pound-for-pound in both combat sports [Usman and Alvarez] in their prime? We’ve never seen that.”
Watch the video below: