UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad has been clamoring for elite opposition for quite some time. He wanted one UFC rising star in Khamzat Chimaev, but according to a recent appearance on The Fighter vs The Writer, Muhammad instead was offered a different rising star in Sean Brady.
“I’m sitting there like Khamzat is not booked. Why am I not fighting Khamzat? That makes the most sense in the world because at the time, we’re the only two guys in the top five that haven’t fought Kamaru [Usman] yet. You’re hyping him up. I was calling for the Khamzat fight before Luque. I wanted to fight Khamzat. Even before the ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson] fight I was like let me fight Khamzat and they kept just brushing it off.
Belal Muhammad Wanted Khamzat, But UFC Only Offered Sean Brady
I was like OK, I just beat No. 5 [ranked fighter] in the world, he just beat No. 3 in the world with Gilbert [Burns], this makes the most sense. I thought that was going to happen. The whole time I’m calling for it, I’m hearing he has visa issues, he’s not going to fight. Then you started hearing the rumors about him and Nate Diaz and how does that make any sense?”
Sean Brady, Belal Muhammad’s opponent for UFC 280, is an undefeated wrestler not unlike Khamzat. It was a social media war of words that led to this matchup.
“You see Sean Brady calling me out on Twitter and I’m like I’m not going to give this guy any attention but the southside Chicago comes out and you’re like let me start responding to him.
We were supposed to fight before so when he’s saying stupid stuff like ‘you’re running from me,’ I’m like didn’t you pull out of the first fight?
Then he has some loser manager on there starting to tweet out and then you get the trashy people from Philly commenting on my post ‘you’re scared.’ I’m like these guys are straight up losers. I’m going to wait for Khamzat or Gilbert. You see Gilbert and [Jorge] Masvidal talking about fighting each other.
Obviously, if you’re Gilbert, Masvidal is a money fight and it’s a way easier fight than I am so that’s getting attention now, that’s getting annoying so me and Khamzat still makes the most sense cause they still hadn’t booked the Nate Diaz fight.
Then my manager called me, ‘I want to get you on Abu Dhabi [at UFC 280], it will be huge for you’ and the last time I fought there was amazing. I always wanted to go back, especially now and then they sold me on Abu Dhabi and I was like me and Khamzat there, that would be huge.”
Will we wee Muhammad vs Khamzat next? Let us know in the comments.
