What is Kamaru Usman's religion?
Kamaru Usman confirmed through a later-deleted tweet that he was born Muslim and later converted to Christianity. However, it was rumored last year that the UFC welterweight champion reverted back to Islam.
Usman has been seen in churches multiple times and was also seen with former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans during one such sighting.
On November 27th, 2016, 'The Nigerian Nightmare' posted a picture of his daughter Samirah on Twitter and added that they had just left church together.
"Just left church and feeling strong. Ready to take on the week #churchgirl #daddysgirl," captioned Usman.
Here is a 2016 tweet from Kamaru Usman's account speaking about taking his daughter to church:
But five years later, on March 15th, 2021, the No.1-ranked UFC men's pound-for-pound fighter's manager Ali Abdelaziz shared a selfie of the duo on Twitter with a mention of Allah in the caption. The tweet when translated from Arabic mentions Allah being the greatest.
This led to the media speculating that he has embraced Islam.
"Allah is the greatest [heart emoji] [hands raised smiley] @USMAN84kg [Usman]," said Abdelaziz.
See Ali Abdelaziz's 2021 tweet with Kamaru Usman below:
It has been reported that only Usman and his brother Mohammed accepted Christianity after beginning to compete in martial arts, while the rest of the family didn't convert.
Kamaru Usman has been named as the male fighter of 2021 by several MMA media outlets
Kamaru Usman holds a 20-1 win-loss record in his professional MMA career so far and is unbeaten in his last 19 fights. He is 15-0 in the UFC and has never been taken down in the world leading promotion.
In 2021, Usman defeated Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 in February, Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 in April and Colby Covington at UFC 268 in November.
He has five successful welterweight title defenses since winning the belt from Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in March 2019.
The 34-year-old superstar was named best male fighter last year by renowned sports publications like ESPN, Fighters Only Magazine and MMAFighting.
He is one victory away from tying former middleweight champion Anderson Silva's longest winning streak record (16) in the UFC.