The Full Story: Belal Muhammad

“Had my first amateur fight and after I got my hand raised as an amateur, I was like, ‘Dude — I’m addicted!’” he says, eyes coming to life, the smile on his face growing wider.

A lot of people talk about chasing their dreams with maniacal focus and 100-percent commitment, but few have actually followed through on that idea the way Muhammad has over the last dozen years that he’s been a professional. Sure, he’ll still lace up his sneakers and get some shots up from time-to-time — basketball was his first love — but the 36-year-old title challenger has been all-in on becoming the best mixed martial artist he could possibly become since that initial amateur victory.

“People have gambling addictions — I have this sport as an addiction,” says Muhammad without a hint of his usual playfulness. “I don’t do nothing but eat, breathe, live this sport. People say that but they don’t really mean it, but I mean it. The UFC will ask me, ‘What do you do as a hobby?’ and I’m like, ‘Bro, this is my hobby, my job. This is what I do; I don’t do nothing else.’

UFC 304: Preview Every Fight On The Card

“I’m training, and when I’m not training, I’m watching videos, trying to get better, because I’m a step behind, so I need to evolve and get better. I need to figure out other things, other techniques.

“This tells me all this time was worth it,” he says of his current position on the cusp of running things back with Edwards and challenging for championship gold. “All the people that doubted me, all the people that said I wouldn’t make it, that I wasn’t good enough — ‘This guy is gonna beat you; that guy is gonna beat you’ — it tells me that my family, my team, the people that are closest to me, we were right.”

From the outset, Muhammad never wanted to assume he was good enough to compete at the highest levels of the sport.

“My thing at the start was I didn’t want to make it to the UFC and get embarrassed,” he begins, recounting how he wanted to face the toughest competition possible at every step because he didn’t want to build any false hope about how he would do if he ever got the call to the Octagon.

You can find favorable matchups on the regional circuit without looking too hard if that’s what you’re after — bouts against weekend warriors with less than mediocre records that are happy to take another loss and the $250 that comes with it while you add another victory to your resume — and many take some version of that route because the cost-benefit analysis of fighting tough competition for not nearly enough money isn’t all that appealing to most.

Muhammad opted to take the other path, bent on learning sooner rather than later whether or not he was cut out to compete on the biggest stage in the sport.

The last five opponents he faced before joining the UFC ranks had a combined record of 58-12 at the time they shared the cage. The group included current ranked UFC middleweight Chris Curtis, Bellator veteran AJ Matthews, and former World Series of Fighting champ and TUF 21 contestant Steve Carl, whom Muhammad beat for the vacant Titan FC title before making the move to the Octagon.

“I’ve seen a lot of guys get there and that was their goal — to make it there,” he says. “And then they lose and it’s over; ‘Well, at least I made it.’

How To Watch And Stream UFC 304: Edwards vs Muhammad 2

“I fought Chris Curtis — I was 5-0 and he was like 10-3 — and I probably got $300 to fight him,” continues Muhammad, chuckling. “Lou was my mentor, so Lou is telling me this whole time, ‘Take easier fights outside of the UFC because they’re not paying you anything; these are fights you should get paid more for.’

“I didn’t care because if I lose, I wasn’t good enough to make it to the UFC.”

He didn’t lose.

Muhammad touched down in the UFC with an unblemished 9-0 mark, stepping in for Nordine Taleb opposite Alan Jouban on July 7, 2016, on the main card of the second event during that summer’s International Fight Week trifecta of events.

He battled hard and dropped a decision to the Louisiana native and current UFC analyst, struggling out of the chute before winning the final frame on all three scorecards; the first glimpse of his indefatigable will shining through in just the third round he’d spent inside the Octagon.

After beating “Dodger” Montano to secure his first UFC win, Muhammad was knocked out in 79 seconds by Vicente Luque on the UFC 205 prelims at Madison Square Garden, putting the determined Chicagoland fighter at a crossroads.

“We lost to Luque and that was the real fork in the road, where it’s ‘Do I belong here? Do I not belong here? Am I good enough to be here?’” recalls Muhammad, who carries a 23-3 record with one no contest into his rematch with Edwards on Saturday. “I had to make my adjustments.

“When I first got in, you’re doing everything right because you’re winnin’ and the whole time, Lou’s my only training partner; I’m training with him and a couple amateur 135’ers, so I was like, ‘I need to get more guys, different ideas, different looks.’ I went down to Roufusport, training with Duke Roufus after that fight a lot more. The team camaraderie was really good, and learning from Gerald Meerschaert, “Biggie” Rhodes, all those guys, was really good; it really helps.

“I took the Randy Brown fight on short notice and I was like, ‘This is the fight. If I lose, I’m for sure getting cut. If I win, then we still got a chance.’”

UFC 304 EMBEDDED: All Episodes

Three months after getting beaten by Luque, he traded Manhattan for Brooklyn, Madison Square Garden for Barclays Center, and a frustrating loss for a lopsided win, dominating Brown on the scorecards to bring his record in the Octagon back to level and avoid a 1-3 start to his UFC tenure.

While his place on the roster was secured, Muhammad still wasn’t sure where he fit within the divisional hierarchy, a combination of growing up constantly being doubted and his later, completely untrained entry into the sport combining to leave him with questions about whether he could do more than tread water at the highest level.

“Growing up where I was, my life, the way that I started, people would always doubt me in everything, whether it was basketball or anything else,” says the welterweight title challenger, a defiant, “I told you so” smile flashing across his face. “‘Ah, who’s this Arab? He’s not gonna come and play with us! He’s not gonna beat us,’ and it was like, ‘Watch me!’

“I’d end up beating them, talking trash, and we’d get into fights,” he adds, laughing. “Same thing with my mindset in fighting. ‘These guys don’t think I’m good enough, but let me show you what I can do.’

He expressed hope that an efficient night against Lima would allow him to walk out of the Octagon injury-free and that perhaps he could take advantage of a short-notice opportunity the way Angela Hill and Kevin Holland had used their constant readiness to catapult themselves into the rankings in their respective weight classes the previous year.

“If you’re the guy that is always willing to say yes, you can blow up, and I want to be one of those guys.”

Barely a week after the fight, his phone rang.

Khamzat Chimaev was once again unable to make his scheduled date against streaking British contender, and the UFC wanted to know if Muhammad was available to replace him. The matchup against a ranked opponent he’d been clambering for fell into his lap, and Muhammad jumped at the opportunity.

READ: Last Time In Manchester

We spoke before that one, as well, joking about just having spoken about goals for the year and how less than three months in, everything was coming up Millhouse.

Despite the short-notice nature of the pairing, it was, as Muhammad said at the time, an outstanding matchup between a pair of divisional dark horses that had combined to win 16 of their previous 17 appearances on the biggest stage in the sport.

“We get the short-notice Leon fight; that’s the first ranked guy we get,” says Muhammad, continuing to trace the steps in his climb to title contention, his tone shifting just a little as he’s forced to touch on his first encounter with Edwards. “It’s two-weeks’ notice, it happens the way it happens.”

In the opening round, Edwards looked quick, focused, dominant; wobbling Muhammad with a high kick and generally being a step ahead the entire way. As they came together at the start of the second, Edwards pawed out with his left hand, measuring range for the same-side head kick coming behind it — the one that would eventually fell Kamaru Usman and earn him the welterweight title — and poked Muhammad in the eye, bad.

“When I would go to Chicago and visit from Roufusport, I met Coach Mike and I liked his mindset a lot. I would go train there one time, two times a week, and then he just started putting it in me — ‘Dude, you’re better than what you’re showing. I know what you’re capable of.’

“After Millender, he was like, ‘I’m not lying to you. I know what you’re capable of, I know your skill set — these people don’t know how good you are; you can be a champion.’ I was like ‘Bro, whatever; we got a win and you’re getting hyped up after a win.’”

He smiles and offers the kind of quick, awkward chuckle that comes when you’re trying to be dismissive of praise because accepting it as truth is much more difficult than any of us want to acknowledge, even in hindsight.

“He just started putting it in me like that after every practice. ‘Trust me. Believe me. Believe in yourself.’ I started to train with him more and more, and his attitude is different because he’s not someone that wants all the accolades; he just wants to do the work. He just loves the sport.

MORE: Coach Sean Madden Breaks Down UFC 304's Main Event

“I’m a guy that goes to different gyms to get different mindsets. I’m cool with a lot of these coaches and I like to know what they’re thinking about, what they’re talking about, and he’s up there with these guys. His brand may not be because people don’t know who he is and he has a small gym, but talent-wise, mind-wise, he’s up there with all these guys.”

So too is Muhammad, even if he doesn’t look the part.

This weekend’s welterweight title challenger isn’t particularly tall or have a domineering reach. He doesn’t have a technicolor hair style or a body adorned in myriad tattoos, and his social media presence — from his weekly game show “Remember the Show” to his “Bully Bicks” predictions that feature solid selections and terrible circles — doesn’t skew towards “dangerous human being I’d be afraid to share the Octagon with.”

Of his 14 career UFC victories to date, only three have come by way of stoppage, so it’s not like Muhammad has a sizzle reel packed with jaw-dropping highlights either, but that’s actually the part that makes him most dangerous.

Brady didn’t survive to see the third; Muhammad breaking his nose and then his spirit as he continued on his march to Saturday’s championship battle in Manchester, where he’s not only fighting for UFC gold, but something much bigger, as well.

“When I win this belt, it’s gonna be the greatest moment of my life because I’m doing it for something bigger,” he says, his excited tone softening, his words taking on a more somber feel. “It’s for myself, my family, my people.

“They need a champion right now, they need a win right now more than anything else, so I’m fighting for a bigger cause. I’m fighting for bigger reasons. I don’t take no time off, I don’t slack at practice because I know what I’m fighting for right now; I have to win this fight, I have to push myself to another level because if I lose, they lose, and I don’t want to see any more of my people down and out.

“I need to get their spirits higher than ever.”

A dozen years after setting out to see if he was good enough to compete in the UFC, and more than eight years after questioning whether he had what it takes to hang with the best the welterweight division has to offer, Muhammad sits on the precipice of fighting for championship gold — entering on a five-fight winning streak, unbeaten in his last 10 appearances, 13-1 with one no contest over his last 15 fights.

Preview The Key Matchups On UFC 304 Using Stats

Regardless of the outcome of Saturday night’s UFC 304 main event, he’s proven his doubters and detractors wrong, and established himself as one of the best fighters in the 170-pound ranks.

But Muhammad won’t allow himself to think about that, accept that, acknowledge that until after his mission is completed on July 27 in Manchester.

“I need it after the 27th,” he says. “I’m not here just to say that I fought for the belt. I’m here to say that I was a world champion, that I was the best welterweight to ever do it.

“I’m not here to say, ‘We made it!’ We didn’t make it yet. We didn’t make it until I get the gold around my waist.”

And then, he’ll set his sights on chasing down Georges St-Pierre, much to the chagrin of his dear mother, who still dislikes his choice of careers and constantly asks if he’s ready to be done with all this fighting.

“When I get the title, she’ll probably be like, ‘Okay, are you done yet?’”

Not by a long shot.