Belal
Muhammad was among those unimpressed by the
Ultimate Fighting Championship main event on Saturday.
Muhammad, who weighed in as the backup fighter for the
UFC 296 headliner between welterweight champ Leon
Edwards and challenger Colby
Covington, did not mince words in talking about the fight,
which Edwards won via unanimous decision. While the build-up to the
fight seemed to promise fireworks, as the challenger’s trash talk
about Edwards’ late father drew a furious reaction from the champ,
the fight itself was a lackluster affair, as Covington failed to
engage his vaunted pressure and wrestling for most of the five
rounds. At the UFC 296 post-fight show, “Remember the Name”
said:
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“Honestly, it was a joke to the division. That’s what happens when
you get a bum off the couch [Covington] who’s been out for two
years, who didn’t deserve the shot, and he goes out there and he
didn’t back up the talk. For Leon
Edwards, you should have backed up your talk too. For what
Colby said, he deserved to have his jaw broken. I thought Leon
should have went out there, he should have embarrassed him and put
it on him, but he played that little game.”
Unbeaten in 10 outings with his last four wins coming against
ranked contenders, Muhammad was widely the considered to be the
rightful contender for Edwards’ second title defense. However, the
UFC elected to give the shot to Covington who hadn’t fought since
March 2022. Muhammad called for his long due title shot yet again,
and UFC CEO Dana White has stated that he will get it. The
35-year-old said:
“So I think the UFC knows who’s next. I need to get in there. I
need to make the welterweight division great again because I’m
going to come to fight every single fight. I’m going to be in your
face non-stop, 100 percent. There’s not going to be no breathing at
all for Leon
Edwards.”
“I’m going to make him look to his corner and his coach is going to
repeat that same statement, ‘Don’t let him bully you, son!’ He’s
going to say that every single round, and once the fight’s over,
he’s [going to say], ‘You let him bully you, son.’ That’s what I’m
going to do to him. I’m going to bully him.”