Belal Muhammad is finished calling out at least one potential opponent who clearly has no interest in actually fighting him.
For the better part of the past year, Muhammad appeared in a perfect position to battle fellow former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman after engaging in a volatile war of words through interviews, social media, and even a podcast interview they did together. After losing his title and falling to Ian Machado Garry this past November, Muhammad was awaiting word on his next opponent, and with Usman out of action for several months following a win over Joaquin Buckley, it looked like the perfect time to finally make that fantasy fight become a reality.
But the offer never came, and instead the UFC matched Muhammad up against rising welterweight prospect Gabriel Bonfim, whom he now faces in the UFC Vegas 118 main event on Saturday. Of course, Muhammad didn’t blink at accepting the fight, but it also told him that any hope he had to eventually settle the score with Usman was already dead and buried.
“For me, it’s like I’m not even thinking about him anymore,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting about Usman. “The guy’s been avoiding me forever. So I’m not going to keep chasing somebody. So my mindset is Bonfim and then looking at the next guy.
“[Usman] got away. It’s whatever. For me, I can’t think about him anymore. Now it’s Gabriel. Once they said him, I’m like, all right, that’s it. Now it’s about getting my hand raised. Getting back in the win column and reminding people who I am.”
Muhammad was adamant in the past that he saw Usman as his ideal opponent, as he started working his way back into title contention after losing the belt this past May.
Unfortunately, he was never granted his wish, so Muhammad has moved on to bigger and better opportunities, and he does not expect to ever cross paths with Usman in the future.
“There’s no need for it anymore, for myself,” Muhammad said about calling out Usman again. “Then it looks like you’re a bully, and I don’t like picking on guys.”
Truth be told, Muhammad says the opponent really didn’t matter to him as much as getting back in the win column after suffering two losses in a row for the first time in his career.
While there’s no shame in either loss, Muhammad acknowledges that falling to Garry bothers him a lot, not only because eye pokes dramatically affected him, but he also dealt with a mysterious bout of vertigo that hit him just after he weighed in for the fight.
“I went into that fight with vertigo,” Muhammad revealed. “I had vertigo after my weigh-in, and it was the first time I ever felt it. I was literally head shaking the whole time.”
Muhammad says he still has no idea how it happened, and the doctors in Qatar didn’t exactly draw him a road map about his vertigo diagnosis much less how to treat it with the fight just 24 hours away.
One thing for certain, Muhammad knows it wasn’t his weight cut, but figuring out the true culprit was just impossible, especially with so little time to spare before he had to set foot in the octagon to do battle with Garry.
“Honestly, it was the easiest weight cut,” Muhammad said. “We saw a doctor from out there, and he said it was a chemical imbalance, so we think it was something with the shakes that we got, that something went wrong with them. But it was the weirdest thing ever that happened.
“But the doctor out there was like so weird, it was a doctor from Qatar, and he’s like ‘just have soup.’ I’m like, what the heck does soup do for you? I was like, is there any medicine? He’s like the only medicine we have will make you drowsy. That was the hardest part of just trying to figure it out because you’re not getting an honest answer.”
There was a moment where Muhammad actually thought he might not be able to compete, but even if he wasn’t at 100%, there was no way he was going to pull out of his fight on such short notice.
“It was close to being pulled out,” Muhammad said. “It was like, nah, we’ve been here for two weeks, we’ve been in Qatar. You’re never going to feel healthy with every fight, so you’ve just got to go out there and see what happens.”
Now recovered from vertigo and determined to get back on track on Saturday, Muhammad believes it’s time to show Bonfim that he’s a good fighter but not quite ready for elite competition at welterweight.
“I’ve been in there with the best of the best,” Muhammad said. “I’ve been in there with all of these guys and stylistically I’ve seen his style before. He’s never really been in there with anybody like me. Stylistically he’s never seen anybody fight like me. Yeah, I think for himself it’s going to be one of those ‘oh OK, that’s the level, that’s the next level, that’s what it’s supposed to be.’
“But my mindset right now is just reminding. Reminding the world, reminding myself and I still think I’m the best fighter in the welterweight division but I’ve just got to go out there and prove it.”
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