Alexander Volkanovski is a former featherweight king, a people’s champ, and a short-notice legend. The MMA clique expects great things out of ‘The Great’ one, even when he isn’t actively participating. More to that, his beef with welterweight Belal Muhammad was on nobody’s bucket list! Despite the Aussie consorting to peaceful means, Muhammad did not heed. Now, Volk seemingly has an answer.
Belal Muhammad recently blew out Leon Edwards with a lopsided nod and won undisputed gold. Nevertheless, Belal and the Aussie make very little sense to begin with. Alexander Volkanovski exclusively told TheMacLife’s Oscar Willis that skill to skill, he rates Muhammad under Edwards and even pitched in to be a backup. Muhammad raged over the statement. Now, Volk issues one of his own.
@bullyb170you have every reason to hate on what I said about you being a good stylistic match up for me but I truly believe that, even after your last fight, you didn’t show me anything different. You still mad because I accidentally missed your call…pathetic! Say ‘shut up, I’ll smack the shit out of you’ to my face and see what happens.
Alexander Volkanovski via X (@alexvolkanovski)
Muhammad outstruck and outwrestled Edwards, even spiking him on the head with a takedown. His dominant showing had clear improvements from the guy who went home with a poke. However, Volk says he did not see anything different that made him think he was still not stylistically good for him. With Muhammad dissing him at the ‘Anik & Florian’ Podcast with Jason Anik, Jon Anik & Kenny Florian | RTS. 132, all floodgates are now open.
Volk has already tried his hand at double-division dips against lightweight king Islam Makhachev. He also offered to return against Conor McGregor during the UFC 303 pay-per-view headliner. While Muhammad was determined to have a conclusive ending to his title shot run and redemption, the issue with Volk, 35, was unexpected. Dabbling at welterweight would be more so.
Alexander Volkanovski explains past beef with Belal Muhammad
Before fighters took the stage at 23,500-seater Co-op Live in Manchester, UK, guest fighters and MMA analysts dabbled on the card. Alexander Volkanovski was a guest fighter for media availability rounds; he also happens to be Edwards’ good friend.
Alexander Volkanovski explains history with Belal Muhammad before UFC 304 (Source: heavy.com/Instagram.com)Throughout the build-up to the rematch, quite a few beefs emerged at UFC 304; title challenger Muhammad ramped up the smack talk on why and how he’d win. It got so much edgy that Volk opened up about how ‘Remember the Name’ made him remember petty clashes and callbacks.
During the other half of his visit, the Aussie sat down with José Youngs and disclosed his history with Belal Muhammad and how it’s affecting him in this build-up.
We were doing a fight reaction… Watching the [UFC] fights, and [Muhammad] was doing it somewhere else. The production teams were trying to get us in contact…I didn’t answer; my phone is always on silent mode. But he just assumed I was knocking him, …He goes straight on Twitter and goes, ‘Max is gonna flog you anyway.’ And stuff like this…
Alexander Volkanovski to MMA Fighting on SBN’s José Youngs (@MMAFightingonSBN)
Muhammad later apologized on FaceTime, saying the tweets were a joke. Nevertheless, Volk was more than a little surprised at how snarky he got even back then. During UFC 304’s fight week, tensions arose again when Volk pitched to be the backup and said he could take on Muhammad. All in all, the matter is as weird as one would imagine.
