Exactly 55 days after he captured the UFC welterweight title from Leon Edwards, Belal Muhammad received the biggest recognition of his career. The Palestinian American has been honored by his hometown city of Chicago with a day in his name. Amidst this, the champion dropped in for a YouTube exclusive with Kevin Iole, revealing how he took notes from the great Khabib Nurmagomedov and Canelo Alvarez.
Going up against an elite striker in Leon Edwards, ‘Remember The Name’ had to study his peers, analyze their strategies, and impart some into his own. And guess what he did just that by closely studying two of the most revered champions. He said,
“I’m always watching guys that I want to mimic in the cage so I did a lot of like watching Khabib (Nurmagomedov) against (Edson) Barboza but I also watched a lot of Canelo just to see like his movement, the way he fights in the pocket because I knew that I wanted to be in that pocket range the whole time during this fight.”
Mentioning ‘The Eagle’s’ masterclass performance against Edson Barboza (another cold-blooded striker like Edwards), Belal revealed that he watched the whole fight for study purposes. Likewise, it was Canelo whom the welterweight followed closely to pick up is close quarter in fighting technique.
The result was pretty evident in July at UFC 304 when Belal outclassed the then-champion, Rocky, over the course of five rounds, both on the feet and on the mat.
Meanwhile, the champion also revealed when he broke down ex-champ Kamaru Usman during an appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast.
Muhammad on Usman: “I broke him down, verbally, mentally, spiritually”
Ever since Muhammad climbed to the top of the welterweight division, former champion Usman has taken shots at him, calling the champ out for a fight. But, Belal never batted an eye and instead seemed like he’d wanted to go up against undefeated Kazakh killer, Shavkat Rakhmonov.
However, now, Belal has revealed when he picked apart Usman with words. During the same conversation, Belal said,
“I went on his podcast and I broke him down, verbally, mentally, spiritually, I could just see it in his face. He did not like not being the guy on top. … I was like, ‘Yeah, it feels good to be on top; everybody’s looking upwards at me,’ and he was like, ‘I ain’t looking upwards at you.’ I’m like, ‘The rankings tell me that you are looking upward at me.”
Personally, Belal is not a big fan of the P4P podcast, deeming that they do rope in some special guests on the show, but the hosts simply “sucked.” In fact, he claimed that he broke down Usman to such a level that the former champion tried to get physical!
