Belal Muhammad doesn’t know who Islam Makhachev’s first UFC welterweight title defense will come against – but he strongly believes it should not come against one individual in particular.
“For (Kamaru) Usman to talk and act like he deserves a shot, the guy is 1-3 out of his last four, and he turned down a fight with me to fight this weekend,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie on Monday. “I think he’s automatically marked off. I feel like Shavkat being injured and being out, I think he’s going to have to get a win, but I think the frontrunner right now is Morales – the performance he had, the streak he’s on. So for me, I’ve got to outperform his performance.”
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Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) fights Saturday at UFC Fight Night 265 in Doha, Qatar in a pivotal welterweight matchup vs. Ian Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC). The bout could have title implications, though with plenty of divisional contenders surging, it’s unclear what the next title fight will be. Carlos Prates, Michael Morales, Shavkat Rakhmonov are also in the mix, as is Usman.
“It’s Ali (Abdelaziz) planting seeds,” Muhammad said. “That’s what Ali does. He plays the puppet master. But at the end of the day, the UFC’s in charge. Do you want to put this old fart with no knees in a title fight? You can’t count on a guy like that who is just a coward. … He wants to get the easy fight out the way. … There’s better guy who deserves it and earned it than winning no fights in four years then beating a guy like Buckley. And not a great performance either.”
Belal Muhammad praises Islam Makhachev
As for Makhachev’s title-winning performance Saturday at UFC 322 over Jack Della Maddalena, Muhammad praised the newly crowned champion’s game plan.
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“Islam sometimes goes into fights, and he wants to strike a little bit, he wants to brawl,” Muhammad said. “I think they did a good job of sticking to the strategy. He did a good job of hitting those calf kicks early. That played a huge role in it, and it really messed up Jack’s footwork. I knew if it hit the ground, there was going to be nothing Jack could do to get up. Islam’s so good on top, and he’s very heavy.”
“… I knew he was big enough for 170. I didn’t think he would be undersized or anything like that. Those guys are all so strong, and they train with monsters. I didn’t think size would matter. I think it came down to Jack not training with somebody from that region. You can train with Craig Jones, you can train with a jiu-jitsu guy, but the guys from Dagestan – DDP felt the same thing when he fought Khamzat. You don’t want the first time you feel that to be in the cage with a referee in there.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad: UFC shouldn’t give ‘old fart’ Kamaru Usman title shot
