Athletes
Belal Muhammad: “There’s No More Running Now”
It Took Time And Patience, But Belal Muhammad Put It All Together And Earned His Title Shot By Sticking To What He Knew In His Hometown Of Chicago
When the blue corner is introduced during UFC 304’s main event, a shower of boos will follow. That’s just the nature of the game when fighting in enemy territory, which is exactly what Belal Muhammad is doing in his welterweight title fight against Birmingham’s Leon Edwards. But before Bruce Buffer gets to Muhammad’s name, he’ll bellow out a point of pride for the 36-year-old: “fighting out of Chicago, Illinois.”
It's always been the long road for “Remember the Name.” Since February 2017, Muhammad lost just once — a decision to Geoff Neal in January 2019. He brings a 10-fight unbeaten streak into his rematch with Edwards, and each fight represents the tall ladder he climbed to welterweight title contention. Doing the majority of his work while fighting out of Chicago’s Valle Flow Striking is something of importance to Muhammad.
Order UFC 304: Edwards vs Muhammad 2
“I definitely take pride in staying local, staying with my team here,” Muhammad told UFC.com during an interview in Chicago. “We're a small gym. I've had many gyms call me to bring me out like, ‘Hey, come out here. We have a bigger gym. We have 50, 60 UFC guys.’ But, for me, coming up, I came from a small gym and a small coach, Louis Taylor, who brought me up, and he was just like, ‘I never want to be the guy to go somewhere else. I just want to build up the guys around me.’”
Essentially, that is what Muhammad has done. Lightweight prospect Ignacio Bahamondes and Charles Radtke are among his peers on the mat each day, and when UFC.com visited the gym earlier in 2024, undefeated welterweight prospect Michael Morales was in the midst of a stint in the Windy City.
While bigger gyms with more tenured fighters might provide a boost to one’s training camp, Muhammad relishes the bond he stayed to build, whether he is in the thick of a tough session or running a class and holding teammates accountable.
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“They all want to protect me,” Muhammad said. “They all want to have my back. And no matter where I go, they're going to be with me, no matter what. It's the guys that are willing to fight for you outside of a gym, or, when you're not in the room, they're the ones backing you up. Those are true teammates that I want. And for me here, that's what I have. I have a family here. These are guys that, after fighting is done, I'm still going to have them in my phone. I'm still going to have conversations with them, still going to have dinners with them. And that's what I want more than anything.”
That’s part of the reason why he didn’t hesitate to bring Morales into the gym when the connection was made. Some fighters might’ve seen a hot commodity in their own division and fear giving away any secrets or building any familiarity with a future opponent, and understandably so.
However, Muhammad embraced Morales with open arms.
“He just fit right in,” Muhammad said. “It was perfect. Doesn’t speak a lick of English, but we connect through martial arts. We connect through the respect we have for each other. Morales is a beast. I think that he's one of the hottest prospects in the UFC, so, for me, it's like, iron is gonna sharpen iron. We're all going to make each other better, so my door is always open.”
Since Muhammad’s last fight — a five-round decision win over Gilbert Burns in May 2023 — he had to do one of the hardest things in fighting: wait. When Edwards defended his belt against Usman for the first time, the consensus No. 1 contender was Colby Covington, a master of the waiting game. To that point, Muhammad had little else to prove and few holes in his resume to earn a title shot, so he stayed put and stood firm while the Edwards-Covington matchup came to fruition.
Naturally, however, that took a while. Nine months passed before Edwards defended his belt against Covington in a clean sweep on the scorecards. Muhammad stayed busy, though, routinely showing up at UFC events and making appearances to interact with fans. It was all he could do while he wasn’t fighting to help people, for lack of a better term, remember his name.
How To Watch And Stream UFC 304: Edwards vs Muhammad 2
“It's hard. I'm trying to teach these younger guys now you've got to stay relevant outside of your fights (and) away from fight,” he said. “Even if you don't have to fight, try to get to as many UFC events as possible. Get on social media, put yourself out there because fighters, we fight one, two, three times a year if we're lucky. And after that week, there’s another fight, so the only way to stay relevant is to stay in the public eye, go out there, shake hands, meet fans, take pictures with them. Show off your real personality, because 90 percent of these people, they've never met you before. They never see you, so they had their own idea of what you are. Then, when they meet you in person, it’s like, ‘You're one of the coolest guys. We expected you to be a fighter, to be nuts or crazy,’ and they expect you to be like that.”
After Edwards shut out Covington, more waiting was required. In fact, eight more months will have passed before Muhammad will finally get his title shot.
Full Fight | Belal Muhammad vs Sean Brady
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Full Fight | Belal Muhammad vs Sean Brady
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Even though that would frustrate most anyone, Muhammad is only seeing it from the bright side. He more or less has prepared for “Rocky” since the beginning of the year. Combine that with the camp he put in for their first matchup, which was ruled a No Contest after an accidental eye poke in the second round back in March 2021, and that means he has only sharpened his gameplan and his skills to outwork Edwards on July 27.
“It just tells me that they didn't like something that they saw here,” Muhammad said. “They don't like something they see in the film, and they know that what's there, and it's going to be a bad night for them. There's no more running now. It's over. Time's up.”
Full Fight | Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad 1
It all comes to a head in Manchester, England. With the crowd all behind Edwards, an ocean away from his home and his team, Muhammad knows he will feel comfortable with it all. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
That’s what happens when you stick to your guns, stick with the people that got you there and build real relationships in familiar confines. To Edwards’ credit, he continues to do the same with Team Renegade in Birmingham. Now, Muhammad gets his opportunity to shine a light on what he has cooking in Chicago.
View Muhammad's Athlete Profile
“I think that my IQ is underrated,” Muhammad said. “My style is underrated. The way that I go into fights, people don't understand the strategy. I beat these guys where they're weakest. I take them to the weakest point. That's where I beat them at. I could do it all.
“I think that people are starting to realize I am truly one of the best complete fighters in the UFC.”
UFC 304: Edwards vs Muhammad 2 took place live from Co-op Live in Manchester, England on July 27, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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