Back in May, one of the most curious onlookers for Belal Muhammad’s title bout against Jack Della Maddalena was Islam Makhachev. If his pal Muhammad were to successively defend the welterweight title at UFC 315, Makhachev intended to stay at 155 pounds to keep defending his own lightweight strap. Yet if Della Maddalena won, he intended to make the leap to try and seize a second title.
Muhammad held it in his hands to keep one of the greatest intruders out of his own division.
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Yet we saw how everything played out. Della Maddalena beat Muhammad, opening the door for Makhachev, who this past weekend beat Della Maddalena in one of his most dominant performances to date. This time it was Muhammad watching things unfold with a curious eye, because he’s right there among the teeming pool of 170-pounders who can rightfully call themselves contenders.
What does it mean to the former champ that his friend Makhachev now holds the belt?
“I mean, it was an amazing performance for [Makhachev] and his team, to get double-champ status,” Muhammad told Uncrowned this week ahead of his return at UFC Qatar against Ian Machado Garry. “That’s legendary, especially for Khabib [Nurmagomedov], who was — everyone wanted him to try and go for it and do it for so long, so for Islam to go for it and cement it was huge, especially for them guys.
“For me, myself, all it means for me is this Saturday I’ve got to perform. All I’m looking at is Ian Garry, because nothing else matters with a loss, right? So I’ve got to go out there, I’ve got to dominate this kid, shut him up and then remind everybody who I am.”
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With the unofficial welterweight grand prix playing out over the course of a week, Garry’s name is perhaps the most discussed for staking his claim for next. If Garry goes to Qatar and beats the ex-champ — and does so emphatically — it will be much tougher for the UFC to justify either Carlos Prates or Michael Morales for a title shot.
Yet if Muhammad beats Garry? That’s where things get interesting.
Makhachev didn’t want to fight Muhammad if he held the belt, so it might seem reasonable that the respect extends the other way. Muhammad, when asked about this, was coy, as things are still too conditional to take anything for granted.
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“For me, what I look at right now at this stage is just Saturday night,” he says. “I looked past the last guy [Della Maddalena], I was looking at other things, ideas. For this one, I’m only looking at Saturday. Come Sunday, you ask me that question, I’ll give you a better answer.”
The old “let’s see how things unfold” response may be the best approach here. Muhammad isn’t exactly inexperienced in responding to a loss, yet it’s been nearly seven years since he dropped a decision to Geoff Neal. After that setback he peeled off an 11-fight unbeaten streak, capturing the welterweight title against Leon Edwards on the 11th fight at UFC 304.
The thing about a win streak like that is you don’t go as inward to understand what worked and what didn’t. You don’t study the film to assess flaws with a real intention to fix things. Mostly you keep doing what has been working.
“Yeah, man, I don’t think about the wins,” Muhammad says of the difference. “All I think about is the loss. Whenever I lose, I come back as a different animal and I’m not one of those guys that gives excuses. So, I look at what we did wrong, what we’ve got to fix, what other mentalities I’ve got to do, what I’ve got to change.
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“So for me it was not like, ‘Oh man, it was an off day or it was this or it’s that, or it’s because of this coach or that food or anything like that,’ no. I think that’s where the problem is with a lot of these fighters. Once they lose, they’re looking for that reason why they lost. For me, nah, we’ve just got to outwork what we did with the last one, and come back as a new fighter, a changed fighter.”
Belal Muhammad’s 11-fight unbeaten streak came to an end in May against Jack Della Maddalena.
(Minas Panagiotakis via Getty Images)
One of the talking points coming out of Makhachev’s imposing victory over Della Maddalena was the historic control time the Dagestani challenger held through an onslaught of wrestling. He had more than 19 minutes of control time in a 25-minute fight, meaning Della Maddalena offered little resistance to the telegraphy of the game plan.
It was an approach that many thought Muhammad himself might try back in May, given that he has wrestling in his arsenal, and by doing so he could nullify Della Maddalena’s boxing. Yet Muhammad says the circumstances for his fight weren’t the same as with Makhachev’s. In watching Makhachev’s dictation of action on Saturday night, Muhammad refused to second-guess things from a “what if” standpoint.
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“I think people just don’t understand what it takes to go in there, right?” he says. “There are reasons why we had to do what we had to do. So, for me, it’s nothing that I could go back and say, ‘Man, I wish I could have changed this, or I could have done that.’ God’s plan is God’s plan. Everything happens for a reason. For myself now, it’s like the last time we lost, we came out with [an 11]-fight winning streak. So I’ve got to just repeat that.”
It’s onto Ian Machado Garry, who has a nose lead in the list of contenders, having already defeated Prates back in April. The outspoken Garry has been vying for the chance to punch his ticket, going so far as to serve as the backup fighter for Muhammad’s title fight with Della Maddalena. Should he treat Muhammad as a stepping stone, he will likely have the inside track to Makhachev.
If things go the other way?
Muhammad doesn’t know what a victory over Garry would mean for himself, but he knows one thing — it would mean the Irishman won’t get his shot. Right now it’s a one-fight mindset for Muhammad, with the big picture looking more like an abstract painting.
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Better to win and see what happens than lose and fall out of the conversation altogether.
“I mean, Garry’s smart, right? He’s good,” Muhammad says. “He understands how to win. He got a win over Prates before he gave Shavkat [Rakhmonov] his toughest fight. He’s beaten guys like ‘MVP’ [Michael Page], he’s very smart with strategizing.
“But he hasn’t fought anybody like me. When you look at style, the people he’s been in there with, there hasn’t been anybody that’s been on my level — and I think Saturday I’m going to show him the differences.”
