With each era passing, new fighters draw inspiration from the last. Belal Muhammad is a prime example, taking inspiration from Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre for their sportsmanship and the way they never speak ill of their opponents. He even cited Colby Covington as an example, taking a shot at him for his trash-talking ways on UFC Unfiltered.
Recently, Muhammad engaged in a brief chat with Matt Serra and Jim Norton, recapping the last pay-per-view of the year. During the episode, the co-hosts highlighted that despite being the bad guy who talks trash about his opponents, Colby Covington effectively markets himself as a sellable and poster-worthy figure. This strategy not only brings him title shots but also garners significant attention.
Muhammad countered it with examples of GSP and Khabib Nurmagomedov, who never spoke ill about their opponents. They consistently focused on their work, dominated the sport, amassed millions of fans, and racked money bags. He stated,
“I think the day and age we are in now the Twitter world with the trolls and all this dumb stuff where guys want to be trash talkers. But for me, I’m never gonna fake anything. I’m not going to sit there and be out of character. Because, at the end of the day, my legacy and my family are the ones that truly matter to me. So to go out there and embarrass myself like Colby, who has to go that low. Like bro, who raised this guy? This guy looks stupid.”
Furthermore, he also stated that young kids look up to athletes. It’s not good to trash talk because they take inspiration from their sports heroes. Instead, he highlighted his inspiration from GSP and Nurmagomedov, who approached the sport with a focus on fighting rather than engaging in trash talk. He added,
“GSP never had to do that, he never had to do the trash-talking. Khabib never had to do the crazy trash-talking. They did it in the cage with dominant performances. That’s what I’m doing with dominant performances.“
There are many reasons to love sports heroes, from their mindset to their discipline. Talking about Muhammad, he loves the GSP and Nurmagomedov for never trash-talking and instead giving performances that speak for themselves.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre Share Deep Mutual Respect
Two years ago, “The Eagle” shared a video on his YouTube channel while sitting at the Arnold Sports Festival in 2021. During the video, GSP appeared out of nowhere to surprise the Dagestani fighter and pretended to choke him. After realizing it was GSP, both laughed and hugged and then Nurmagomedov shared that the last time he met GSP, he had choked him, so GSP tried to reciprocate.
Subsequently, Nurmagomedov shared that GSP was his father’s favorite fighter, and he always loved to watch him. He stated it was an honor to share the stage with him. To this, GSP was overwhelmed, and he also praised Nurmagomedov for his dominant career, where he faced no losses and retired with a perfect record, which is rarely the case.
In the violent sport of bloodshed, it is heartening to see fighters having mutual respect. This is exactly what Muhammad was pointing fingers at.
