‘Ronda Also Thought She Had Great Hands’: Canelo Alvarez Comparison Lands Belal Muhammad in Hot Water Ahead of UFC 315

Belal Muhammad claims he is the best boxer in the UFC, and at UFC 315, he’s going to prove it. This isn’t exactly new from Belal. Even back when he was fighting Leon Edwards for the welterweight title at UFC 304 last year, Belal had claimed that he had hands like WBC, WBA, and WBO super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

While this was not the case in Manchester when the pair fought, Belal actually managed to look impressive with quick hands against the champion. However, it appears Belal is still riding the high of that win ahead of first title defense against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 later this year.

During an episode of the Coach and Casual podcast, he declared, “I’m gonna go over there, I’m gonna outbox Jack, I’m not gonna shoot one takedown and I’m gonna show him the meaning of Canelo hands.”

Wait? So, Belal is not going to shoot for a takedown? Sure, the Palestinian-American champion’s striking has been dialed up, but no takedowns would likely be disastrous for the champion since wrestling is his primary skill and decision wins are his whole schtick. And we are not the only ones to think so.

This Twitter user predicted a trip to the shadow realm for the 170 lbs champion and said, “If bro doesn’t wrestle, he’s getting sent to Narnia.”

Others drew comparisons to Ronda Rousey’s infamous attempt to showcase her striking game against Amanda Nunes, which, if one remembers, was the last fight of her career. “Ronda also thought she had great hands.”, reminded this man.

The shade didn’t stop there, as another fan chimed in with, “Interesting anyway, JDM by KO,” showing they have little faith in Belal’s stand-up game.

The consensus? No one’s buying that Belal Muhammad can ditch his wrestling and go full Canelo. Even those trying to rationalize the comment think it’s all just promotional fluff.

“New way for wrestlers to try to draw interest in their fights. Lie and say they’re not gonna do what they always do… Wrestle,” read one take that pretty much summed up the skepticism.

But whether it’s a strategy to draw interest or pure confidence in his hands, Belal’s words have certainly stirred the pot ahead of UFC 315. To be fair to Belal, he cannot be held accountable for the amount of shade he’s been throwing at his opponents. For years now, he’s been accused of being uncharismatic and boring.

So, since winning the title, he has simply upped his social media game, practically owning just about anybody that dares tweet at him.

Be it calling former champion Kamaru Usman washed up or randomly beefing with Alexander Volkanivski, Belal has kept MMA Twitter from being a stale compilation of Conor McGregor’s deleted tweets.

But now as the time approaches for him to pay the piper, Belal is not messing about.

Why Belal picked JDM

After winning the title last year, Belal had claimed that unlike his predecessors- Edwards and Usman, he would not waste his time chasing easy fights but would rather go after the most deserving contender.

At the time, of course, that was the 19-0 fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov. Unfortunately, Belal hurt his leg training ahead of UFC 310 and the UFC decided to have what was considered to be a #1 contender’s fight between Ian Gary and Shavkat.

Shavkat would win, shake hands with Belal, and the fight would be agreed on. Unfortunately, earlier this year, the Kazakh fighter informed the UFC that he would not be able to recover from an ongoing injury crisis in time for the match. And so, the champ would have to fight someone else entirely.

It wouldn’t be a difficult choice for Belal, though. True to his word about giving deserving fighters the opportunity to attain UFC gold, Belal would hone in on Della Maddalena.

“I said who has the highest winning streak, and Jack was on a 12-fight winning streak, he was coming off a big win, and he was supposed to fight Leon, and he has a big country behind him.”, Belal said, explaining his decision.

Here’s where it gets a lot more interesting. Stylistically, JDM is antithetical to Belal. He is a surgeon with gloves, which is something he will really need to rely on if Belal’s claims about having ‘Canelo hands’ come true.

Whether or not it will come true remains subject to speculation at this point.