Belal
Muhammad doesn’t see himself being very far from a potential
move up to middleweight to fight for his second title.
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Muhammad got his welterweight title shot against Leon
Edwards at UFC 304
after mounting a 10-fight unbeaten run. “Remember the Name”
outdueled Edwards throughout five rounds in front of the latter’s
home crowd in Manchester to earn a unanimous decision win.
Muhammad is already discussing a future move up to middleweight to
attempt to become a two-division champion. Muhammad believes he is
just two more title defenses away from being able to make that goal
a reality.
Making his case, the Chicago native argues that neither of the two
potential opponents for his first title defense, Kamaru
Usman or Shavkat
Rakhmonov, is a clear No. 1 contender. Muhammad notes that when
he fought Edwards for the title, he was the undeniable title
challenger. With Muhammad having already beaten several top 10
contenders on his way up to title contention, the champ believes he
might not have much left to do at 170 pounds before considering a
move up in weight.
“I’ve already beat so many top contenders. You could say Shavkat is
next, but is he truly deserving to be next? Is Usman truly
deserving to be next? There’s not really a clear No. 1 contender if
you’re really thinking about it,” Muhammad told Grind
City Media. “When Leon won, I was the clear No. 1 contender. I
beat this guy, this guy, this guy. It’s like, alright, well he beat
[Stephen] ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson], and I beat like four guys after ‘Wonderboy.’
“There’s not really that guy where you’re like, ‘Oh, he beat a No.1
contender’. None of these guys beat a No.1 contender like I beat a
No.1 contender. When I beat [Vicente] Luque, he was on a
seven-fight winning streak. When I beat Gilbert
Burns, he was on a two-fight winning streak. He was the No. 1
contender. He was right there. Sean Brady
was 15-0 when I beat him. All these guys had big wins, huge wins,
but it tells me I got like maybe two fights and now I can start
talking about double-champ status because I already beat all these
guys in the Top 10.”