Belal Muhammad finally got the fight he wanted for so long. So he made sure to make the most of it. ‘Remember The Name” walked away from UFC 304 with a unanimous decision win over Leon Edwards and the welterweight title. Now he plans to treat Edwards the same way he did after their first fight.
Belal Muhammad and Leon Edwards first fought back in 2021. The fight lasted only two rounds and ended in a no-contest. That was because of an accidental eye poke that left Muhammad unable to continue. It took over three years since that fight to get a rematch against ‘Rocky’. Now at the post-fight press conference, Muhammad revealed that he plans to do the same.
Yeah, I’ll give him a rematch in three years. Let him work his way back up. I think it was a dominant fight. There’s really no need for a rematch and I don’t think he had that long reign of a champion where he’s entitled to a rematch.
Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 post-fight presser
Instead, Muhammad argued that it was all a layup for him to come to Edwards’s hometown in front of his people and enemy territory. Does that mean the beef between the two welterweights is not over yet? They were seen together exchanging words after the fight. Looks like the new welterweight champion had more problems with the people who previously put him down and underestimated him than with Edwards himself.
Moreover, Muhammad expressed himself by saying that he was the best fighter in the world. He just had to prove it after dwelling on their previous unfinished fight for over three years and dealing with the haters and trolls online.
Who will Belal Muhammad fight next?
So if he plans to put Leon Edwards on hold for now, who will Belal Muhammad fight for his first title defense? Muhammad plans to take on the rising contenders in the division. The welterweight division has a good number of up-and-coming talent in its top ten rankings.
Belal Muhammad became the first Palestinian UFC world champion at UFC 304 (via X)Contenders such as Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry are yet to taste their first defeat. Jack Della Maddalena is also another probable contender in the top five of the 170 lbs weight class. Thus, Belal Muhammad would have no problem finding opponents to build his legacy as the new welterweight champion.
I think beating this next generation of guys. You have Shavkat, you have Ian Garry, you have ‘JDM.’ So there’s these young up-and-comers that everybody’s saying are killers. They’re probably still saying these guys are going to kill me next, right?
Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 post-fight presser
‘Remember The Name’ plans to go out there and “walk through” all these fighters and then beat the old generation- Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, and other long-time welterweights in the promotion. Muhammad wants to do everything that they said he could not do. He also has plans to move up weight classes and take on Dricus du Plessis for a second belt in the middleweight division.
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