CORAL GABLES, Fla. — If Belal Muhammad is to be believed, Colby Covington isn’t taking any chances with him during RAF 13 fight week.
Muhammad and Covington have feuded for years, with the two vying for championships in the UFC’s welterweight division. A meeting in the octagon never materialized, but they are now set to face off on the RAF mats in this Friday’s main event at Watco Center.
This past July, Muhammad picked up his first RAF win by defeating fellow former UFC fighter Ben Askren, and later got into a press conference confrontation with Covington. Muhammad claims there are now contingencies to prevent any physicality outside of their wrestling match.
“It was an honor wrestle with Ben, and then when you go from somebody that it’s an honor to meet and work with and then to somebody that you hate and you dislike and is a clown, that’s just the world we live in now,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck. “The Twitter trolls and then the real people, so when you see him in person, the real side comes out.
“He’s a coward. He hid behind security. He’s already trying to put restraining orders on anything happening, so now I’m going to go on the mat and I’m going to beat him up in his world.”
Asked to clarify, Muhammad suggested authorities will be on hand just in case he decides to take a swing at Covington.
“We’ll just say that we’re getting orders that if we hit him or something like that happens, that police will be there waiting for it to happen,” Muhammad said. “At the end of the day, I’m a professional, I’m going to go out there and smash him the right way.”
Though Muhammad might have preferred to meet Covington in a UFC fight, where he’d be less limited in the techniques he could employ against his hated rival, he guarantees Covington will still be the worse for wear after he’s done with him.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for it,” Muhammad said. “It’s not going to be a fight, but wrestling inside the trenches, it is a fight. When you’ve got a coward on one side, he’s going to wither.”
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