‘No one remembers the name,’ fans responded, after Joe Rogan re-uploaded a podcast with Belal Muhammad on YouTube. Which is extremely surprising, and more than somewhat cruel to the former welterweight world champion and current leader in the category.
It happened this way. The episode in question was earlier only available on Spotify. But after Rogan’s exclusive deal with the audio and music streaming platform ended, the JRE host uploaded several episodes on YouTube.
One such episode was #134, where the UFC commentator hosted Belal when he was still the welterweight champion. But the re-upload appears to have underwhelmed fans.
Popular X account @CasualMMAinc posted a screenshot of the YouTube video, showing only 78k views in 11 months. The post tried to show that Belal was not very popular despite his status as a world champion. Fans responded to this in mixed fashion. While some trolled Belal, others looked to fact-check the MMA page.
“It’s bc no one remembers the name,” said one fan, making fun of Belal’s nickname, which is actually “Remember the name!”
Another was disappointed to see the video do so badly, saying, “Sad because it was a good episode.”
“I guess no one remembered the name,” commented another Twitter user, looking to troll the former champ.
Some others sympathised with Muhammad and commented, “This was part of uploading the backlog of JREs from when Joe was exclusive to Spotify. There were hundreds of these, all released at the same time.”
Meanwhile, one particular Belal fan was happy to remind Twitter users of the reality. “Y’all claim you don’t even remember his name, yet somehow manage to hate on him every single day,” they said.
To put things into perspective, Belal’s latest podcast episode has garnered over 600k views on YouTube. Meanwhile, despite all the hate towards the former champion, there’s a UFC legend who had nothing but praise for Belal Muhammad and his title reign.
‘Bad Guy’ praises Belal amidst sea of hate
The main criticism UFC fans had against Belal was that he was an ‘unpopular’ champion. He had more fans praying for his downfall than those cheering him on. In fact, when Jack Della Madallena dethroned him in style at UFC 315, a huge section of the fans openly celebrated.
There was a lot of unwarranted hate towards Belal simply because he wasn’t the best at trash-talking and didn’t have any flashy knockouts. And according to UFC veteran Chael Sonnen, the hate towards him is undeserved.
In an interview with The Schmo, he spoke about Belal saying, “All Belal has ever done is fight the hardest guys, ask for opportunities, and keep his mouth shut when it doesn’t go his way. The best thing he’s done is he called for his next fight,” said Sonnen.
Chael Sonnen shows support for Belal Muhammad: “He’s set an example for everybody.”
“All Belal has ever done is fight the hardest guys, ask for opportunities, and keep his mouth shut when it doesn’t go his way. The best thing he’s done is he called for his next fight. He did… pic.twitter.com/tfAHjFCLpG
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) May 28, 2025
He went on to talk about how the Palestinian-American fighter also set a good example for other champions.
“He lost the fight, and he’s still calling for a fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov. That’s a great example Belal set for everybody, and it’s another thing he won’t get credit for—but he deserves it,” Sonnen asserted.
The Good Guy/Bad Guy host also claims not to understand why there’s so much hate towards Belal, while the same people would endlessly celebrate anyone else with the same records, accomplishments, and work ethic.
