Belal Muhammad Has a Clear Favorite Between Shavkat Rakhmonov and Kamaru Usman for First Title Defense

Allan Binoy | 28/09/2024
Belal Muhammad Feels Shavkat Rakhmonov Hasn’t Encountered a Fighter Like Him Before

Belal Muhammad has finally decided on his first title defense. The newly crowned UFC welterweight champion has been beefing with both Shavkat Rakhmonov and Kamaru Usman, making it impossible for anyone to predict what he will do next. But it seems he’s chosen the seemingly tougher option in Shavkat Rakhmonov.

Despite Usman having been the most dominant welterweight champion in recent memory, he has lost all three of his previous fights, two of them coming against former champion Leon Edwards, who Belal defeated to take the UFC gold at UFC 304 in Manchester.

Rakhmonov, on the other hand, is an undefeated prospect in the UFC and is widely considered the most deserving contender in the welterweight division.

So, in a recent video posted by Omer Osman on X, the champ made a few public service announcements, calling the Pound 4 Pound podcast absolute garbage, then accepted the undefeated Kazakh’s challenge for a title fight.

“The pound for pound podcast sucks, I was on there, Usman was terrible at talking, he was terrible at fighting, he got embarrassed….Shavkat, see you soon boy.”

 

Ever since becoming champion, Muhammad has been wanting all the smoke. He has been calling out fighters left, right, and center without a care in the world. And as of a few hours ago, he’s somehow found himself in a feud with Conor McGregor.

McGregor goes off the deep end

After Michael Chandler ditched him at prom to go home with Charles Oliveira, McGregor went live with DuelBits and just tried trash talking his way into a title fight in two division.

At first, he took some shots at the featherweight champion Ilia Topuria since the Spaniard had claimed that the Irishman wasn’t good enough anymore.

And then when he was asked about Belal, McGregor went on a rather weird rant claiming he was the man at 170 lbs.

“Oh he’s woeful, I wanna fight him…Belal McGregor UFC Welterweight World Title Fight…I do damage at 170, yea… this man [Belal] hasn’t even got a knockdown in UFC history.”

 

McGregor is no stranger to the welterweight division. He has fought at 170lbs multiple times, most famously in his fights against Nate Diaz, the first of which saw him tap out, while the second saw him barely crawl over the line with a decision victory.

But given that Belal is at least on a level higher than the younger Diaz brother, this is a nightmare matchup for the former champion.

Besides, with no fights in the last three years, it is highly unlikely that the UFC will give him a title shot in his first fight back.

Post Edited By: Smrutisnat Jena
Belal Muhammad Kamaru Usman Shavkat Rakhmonov

About the author

Avatar photo

Allan Binoy

Allan Binoy is a MMA journalist at The SportsRush. Taken to the sport in 2015, thanks to a certain Conor McGregor, Allan has himself dabbled in the martial arts. And having graduated from Loyola College, Chennai, with a degree in English Literature, he has learnt to use his love for language to have a voice in the MMA community. Allan has been writing about the gladiatorial stories for more than three years now and has pursued excellence at a number of reputable media organizations, covering every UFC PPV in the last couple of years. In addition to this, the southpaw is also a semi-professional soccer player for Diego Juniors FC in Pune, playing in the Pune Super Division League.

Don’t miss these