“Then we go in the house, and after the first fight, this matchup was built,” Usman continues. He goes ‘Hey bud,’ gets into his car and drives off. He leaves my neighbor’s house, he sees me, I see him, and I know him. Then two days before the show, I run into him for the first time ever. I saw him in that fight and yes, he got the knockout, but I saw some ways that I could capitalize and beat this guy. He fought a teammate of mine, Felipe Portela. I just heard of him about five months before we started taping the show. “All three years, I never saw Hayder Hassan one time. “I’ve been in MMA for almost three years,” he said. The “Nigerian Nightmare” believes it started even before that. It’s not, because from the first days of the competition, Usman and Hassan appeared to be on a collision course. It’s the most intriguing TUF finale bout in years, and one Usman believes “was built by fate, to be honest, even though I know that sounds a little cliché.” On Sunday, following a tumultuous season that included two wins over Steve Carl and Michael Graves, Usman is the man Robinson is sending into battle against ATT’s Hayder Hassan with $300,000, the season trophy, and bragging rights on the line. “I said this is for my team, for my family, and also for myself, so I’ll do it.” Usman was one of them, and the 28-year-old got on board. Glenn is Glenn Robinson, founder of the Blackzilians, and when the opportunity came for him to put his squad against their Florida rivals, American Top Team, on season 21 of the show, he called in his big guns at 170 pounds. “And lo and behold, this opportunity comes up and Glenn, my manager, is like ‘hey, we’ve gotta do this.’” “I said I would never do a TUF season as a competitor,” Usman laughed.
![glenn robinson mma manager glenn robinson mma manager](https://www.muscleandfitness.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Kamaru-Usman-UFC-Photo-Credit-Zuffa-LLC-Jeff-Bottari.jpg)
As a promising welterweight with the Blackzilians in south Florida, he had the talent and connections to get to the UFC without a boost from the reality show, and after serving as a wrestling coach for Jason “Mayhem” Miller on season 14 of TUF, he looked around and figured that six weeks locked away from the world just wasn’t for him.
![glenn robinson mma manager glenn robinson mma manager](https://heavy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/authenticsportsmgmt.jpg)
Kamaru Usman was never going to go on The Ultimate Fighter.