Riding a five-fight win streak since their main event ended abruptly after an accidental eye poke rendered him unable to continue, #2 welterweight Belal Muhammad has persistently poked Leon Edwards who now holds UFC championship gold three years later. If he gets his long-awaited wish at a title shot as expected, the 35-year-old cannot underperform as Colby did last month.
Belal: I’m a different kind of fight for Leon
- Belal, like former interim champion Colby Covington, believes Edwards is mentally weak judging by his corner: “Leon having to fight somebody like me, hungry and been fighting the world’s best guys, it’s going to be a different kind of fight for him. He’ll realise that when he’s in the cage and his motivational speaker in-between rounds can’t really give him advice.”
- 35-year-old believes champion lost trilogy with Kamaru Usman last March, questioned his recent resume before the title fight and hasn’t shown much growth as a martial artist: “If we’re looking at who’s bettering themselves, I’ve gotten better every single one of my fights – he hasn’t.”
- Edwards confirmed he’d make third welterweight title defence at UFC 300 during Villa Park visit over festive period, opponent TBA but likely Muhammad – who weighed in as the back-up option at UFC 296 and was promised the next shot by Dana White after short-notice Gilbert Burns win
The penny appears to have finally dropped for Belal Muhammad, whose increasingly vocal social media pressure in recent months has become impossible for many to ignore – as much as critics want to rubbish his fighting style, and ironic nickname.
35 and on a 10-fight unbeaten streak (9 wins, one no contest), he’ll look to finally achieve retribution for the controversial ending in his first main event spot. March will make it three years to the month since that event, and he’s only levelled up since.
Also read on this topic:
April 2023 – Belal only looking up, wants Edwards, Usman or Covington next
December 2021 – After productive year, Belal seizing chance in flimsy division
Belal: What have you done for me lately?
May 2023: UD5 win vs. title challenger Gilbert Burns in short-notice eliminator
October 22: R2 TKO (punches) win over rising contender Sean Brady
April 2022: UD5 win in main event rematch vs. Vicente Luque, avenging defeat
December 21: UD3 win against two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson
June 2021: UD3 win beyond the legendary veteran figure in Demian Maia
Considering the welterweight division seems to be fluctuating through contenders at present, it’s now or never for an unlikely title contender that has reached the summit with world-class consistency that became impossible to ignore.
When analysing the rematch on his YouTube channel, former two-division champion Henry Cejudo drew comparisons between Muhammad and unbeaten Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired as lightweight champion in 2021.
“It’s going to be a great, competitive fight. They [Khabib and Belal] do the same kind of cross steps, kind of run and shoot, the same kind of feints with that lead hand to eventually level change for the takedown. I’m going to rewatch their first fight and see how that actually went, they both have gotten better but Belal has evolved more, gotten so freaking much better. He’s a freestyle fighter.
It’s not like he has this crazy swift technique like Leon, beautiful knees up the middle or extremely dangerous front kicks but knows how to mix his fighting, level change at the right time, when to bait you to eventually go in for a takedown, when to press and when someone is fatigued – like he did to Brady.”
A boost from the Brady scalp
Brady was an 15-0 unbeaten contender (5-0 UFC) and highly-regarded before Muhammad inflicted his first career defeat rather emphatically via stoppage during a matchup many favoured the Philadelphia-born fighter to win.
A year earlier, he manhandled perennial contender Michael Chiesa and was tipped for great things – but only just returned to competition last month, with a third-round submission win over former welterweight title challenger Kelvin Gastelum. It proves how quickly times can change, so strike while the iron is hot.
Belal has certainly been doing that recently and credited the nature of his stoppage victory to work alongside Khabib’s camp in Dagestan, training under supervision from AKA chief Javier Mendez – complete with high-level sparring across multiple disciplines – as well as his existing coaches from the Chicago Fight Team.
Said to already be training hard while helping teammates in preparation for the call confirming an April 13 fight date as expected, he’s planning another Dagestan visit.
“I’m planning to go and train with those guys, to get a new look, different feels. Those guys don’t let you take any days off or any easy rounds, that’s always perfect for me. Last time I trained with those guys, we got a dominant finish – I plan to do the same thing.”
Colby got it all wrong last month but now has the benefit of such strong fan backlash that he’d draw considerably more eyes in his next fight, whether you agree or not.
Belal has never been fan-friendly, isn’t naturally a trash-talker and doesn’t have the same luxuries afforded his way so it’ll be interesting to see whether he can make those improvements show themselves come fight night or Edwards will complete what he looked likely to during their initial exchanges three years ago.
Only difference is this time, the criticism would be louder on an even bigger stage and there’d be a long road back to championship contention for an unlikely foil.
UFC 300 card, is as follows
April 13, Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena
More fights, bout order TBA in due course
Light-heavyweight: Jiri Prochazka [2] vs. Aleksandar Rakic [5]
Lightweight: Charles Oliveira [1] vs. Arman Tsarukyan [4]
Featherweight: Calvin Kattar [7] vs. Aljamain Sterling
Middleweight: Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes hyperlinked via mmajunkie
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