The UFC welterweight belt changed hands once again this past weekend as Belal Muhammad dethroned Leon Edwards in his very first attempt. However, there are a lot of fighters including former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski who believed that Belal would not be able to get the job done. So following the win, Belal’s manager Ali Abdelaziz has asked ‘Volk’ to show the champion some respect.
Volkanovski was present during fight week in England and during an interview he stated that he would be willing to step in on short notice for the title fight if either man pulls out. He went on to add that he feels he would be a good matchup stylistically for Belal Muhammad.
After winning the belt, Belal made sure to call out Volkanovski and blasted him for even thinking that he would fare well in a fight, which led to Volk hitting back at him.
The back and forth did not sit well with manager Ali Abdelaziz who took to Twitter to say that while everyone loved the Aussie, he would do well to give the champion his flowers.
“You and Leon are cool and you are not happy Belal won and it’s ok because he is your friend. He proved everyone wrong on Saturday, it was a one sided fight.”
Volk you know everybody loves you but man listen give the man his flowers, you and Leon are cool and you are not happy Belal won and it’s ok because he is your friend. He proved everyone wrong on Saturday, it was a one sided fight https://t.co/mbvQ1Y8t3h
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) August 1, 2024
Meanwhile, since winning the title, Belal has promised to be the best fighting champion in the company’s history.
Belal aims to surpass Georges St-Pierre’s legacy
Getting to the top is easy, staying there is where the real task begins, as the Palestinian-American is about to find out.
For Belal though, just aiming for the stars isn’t enough. He wants to surpass them.
He wants people to remember him as the best there ever was, and to do that he will have to be go past GSP.
According to Belal, he is already close to St-Pierre’s stature already since he beat someone that beat Kamaru Usman, the best welterweight of all time after ‘GSP’. But that’s just MMA math. It doesn’t mean much.
For instance, Max Holloway beat Justin Gaethje for the BMF title. Prior to that Gaethje had defeated Dustin Poirier. And before that Poirier had defeated Holloway to win the interim lightweight title. So…
So, in order to surpass ‘GSP’, Belal will have to get a few title defenses under his name, the first of which will likely be against the dangerous Shavkat Rakhmonov later this year or early in 2025.
