Kamaru Usman has said he bears 'no ill will' towards Colby Covington.
The UFC welterweight champion added: "It is a partnership. You have to have the right dance partner. I respect the guy, I have nothing against him."
Usman, 35, used an appearance on Daniel Cormier's YouTube channel to speak about his rivalry with Covington.
He and Covington, who have a combined 36 fights between them, have been going back and forth for years.
But The Nigerian Nightmare claims it's nothing personal despite bearing the brunt of Covington's controversial outbursts.
The MMA fighter told 42-year-old former champ Cormier: “When you on top, you don’t want no ill will towards nobody.
"You just want to protect what you have. I have no ill will towards him, Gilbert [Burns], Leon [Edwards], [Jorge] Masvidal, or anyone.
“It’s less for me. Because you get to a certain point—and you’ve been here, champ-champ. You’ve been here."
Usman added: “It gets to a certain point you’re just competing. You know what we compete for. We want to compete, and get the bag, and go home, and go lay up with our kids.
"That’s what we want. So it gets to that point. He’s still chasing that.
"He’s chasing that feeling that we get now because we have become champ, we’ve defended, we are known worldwide as the man.
"And that’s the feeling he is still chasing and that he will never feel as long as I am in the way."
And when it comes to Covington's trash talk, Usman feels it's just a way for him to try and 'stay relevant'.
He continued: “So it is what it is. For me, I just have a calm reserve because a jack--- will say anything. And that’s where he’s at right now.
"He’ll say anything just to still try to stay in that spot and stay relevant, to where I don’t have to do that.
"When it’s time to go to work, I show up and I go to work, and I’ve shown it time and time again.”
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