Mohammed Usman, the brother of UFC champion Kamaru, is ready to prove himself this weekend as he attempts to win a UFC contract.

For many years now mixed martial arts fans have been aware of the fact that the great Kamaru Usman has an older brother, Mohammed. The heavyweight serves as a pretty imposing figure whenever he’s in the cage and in the last couple of months, he’s taken his talents from PFL to the UFC by taking part in the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter.

‘The Motor’ has managed to edge his way through to the final and on Saturday night, he’ll attempt to emulate his brother by winning TUF and making it to the UFC.

In order to do so, he’ll need to get past the unbeaten Zac Pauga who is currently considered to be the favourite to get his hand raised.

One thing we know to be true about the Usman family is that they’re pretty efficient when it comes to executing their game plan and we expect nothing less from Mohammed in Las Vegas.

The fact that he’s gotten to this point was always going to open up the door for criticism and comparisons to Kamaru but in his pre-fight media scrum, Usman made it clear that he doesn’t mind that.

“I had to put the work in to get here,” Usman said. “Fighting is fighting. It’s not, ‘Oh, Kamaru’s your brother. Now let’s just push you up here. You’re in the “Ultimate Fighter” finale, you don’t have to fight these two hard monsters that are coming in at 265 pounds to be here. We’ll just put you here because your brother is Kamaru Usman.’

“That’s false. Everything about fighting is yourself. That’s why I love it so much, because as much as people speak about my brother, that’s why I love it because I’m still the one that has to go out there and compete and have to fight and have to win for you guys to even be up here and talk crap to me and tell me about my brother. If I don’t win, I’m not even getting up here and looking at you guys.”

Kamaru’s next step

While Mohammed may have a big fight on his hands at the weekend, Kamaru has a far larger task coming later this month.

At UFC 278 in Salt Lake City, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ will attempt to maintain his position as the UFC welterweight champion when he defends the strap against top contender Leon Edwards.