If it seemed like Belal
Muhammad didn’t go to his wrestling as much as he should have
early on at UFC 315,
it’s because the former welterweight champion was trying to prove a
point.
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“Remember the Name” didn’t land his first takedown until the fourth
round, as he relinquished the 170-pound strap to Jack
Della Maddalena in a unanimous decision loss on May 10 at the
Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. While Maddalena deserves
some credit for shoring up his defensive wrestling, Muhammad admits
that he didn’t follow the game plan as closely as he should
have.
“I think I have the best team in the world, some of the best
coaches in the world, and we go into every fight with a strategy
and idea of what we want to do,” Muhammad said on the “Remember the
Show” podcast. “Obviously, for us, what our strategy was was to
take down Jack. It wasn’t to go blow-for-blow with him,
brawl-for-brawl with him.
“But, man, it’s a weird moment when you’re training something so
much and you’re getting better at something, which I think my
striking has grown so much and I’ve always said it. When I said
that in the lead-up, I wasn’t lying about it. ‘Bro, I can box with
him, I can strike with him. I’m not afraid to strike with him.’ And
I went out there and I just felt good.”
When all was said and done, Maddalena outlanded Muhammad by a
178-to-132 count in significant strikes. Muhammad was outlanded in
each round, but he did his best to put the pressure on his
Australian opponent in the championship frames, which made for an
entertaining, though ultimately unsuccessful, conclusion.
„I can strike with this guy and people tell me I can’t go in there
and strike with him,“ Muhammad said. „Obviously, we lost the fight,
but we stood toe to toe, and people can say whatever they want to
say. I went against the game plan, and at the end of the day, I’m
going to live with that. But it came down to one round, maybe one
exchange that could’ve swayed the judges that way. So, was my
gameplan wrong? It could’ve went the other way. Could it have been
an easier fight? It could’ve, but at the end of the day, I love to
fight.”
That defeat ended an 11-fight unbeaten streak for Muhammad, who had
a long journey to reach the top of the division. The 36-year-old
Chicago native is confident that he isn’t too far removed from
another title shot, and he’s willing to do the work necessary to
get to that point.
“I’m one fight away from winning the belt. I’m one fight away from
being there,” Muhammad said. “… I’m not stupid. I’m not going to
sit there and think, ‘Oh, I’m going to wait for a rematch.’ I want
to get back up. I want to beat one of these guys that’s a No. 1
contender. I want to show you guys that I’m still the best in the
world. I want to show them, ‘Who are you going to put in front of
me and watch what I do.’”