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UFC 268: Dana White tells Kamaru Usman ‘you don’t want to fight Canelo Alvarez’
- ‘Come on man, let’s stop this,’ says UFC president, after welterweight champ calls for showdown with boxing superstar
- ‘Canelo’s a big scary guy, and he knows I’m a big scary guy,’ Usman says, following unanimous decision win over Colby Covington
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After going 15-0 in the UFC follow his fifth successful title defence, Kamaru Usman reiterated his call for a showdown with boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez – but Dana White warned his welterweight champion off the idea.
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While Usman was busy preparing for what would be a unanimous decision win against his arch rival Colby Covington in Saturday night’s UFC 268 main event at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Canelo was on the other side of the country in Las Vegas becoming the undisputed super middleweight champ, with an 11th-round knockout of Caleb Plant.
“I watched Canelo fight tonight,” said UFC president White, who hinted with a smile that the stream he had kept an eye on from cageside may perhaps have not been legal.
“You don’t want to fight Canelo. Come on man, let’s stop this s***,” White added. “If Canelo wants to come over here [to MMA], let’s do it. He don’t want to box Canelo.”
Mexico’s Canelo stressed before his latest win that he had no interest in boxing Usman, as it would do nothing for his legacy in the sport. But “The Nigerian Nightmare” (20-1) won’t give up the cause.
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“If I’m gonna leave my daughter for another 12 weeks or more, it’s gotta be something that really gets me up,” he said at the UFC 268 post-event press conference. “I like that, I wanna challenge myself.
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