Latest news with #BelalMuhammad
USA Today
14-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Belal Muhammad wants more UFC weight classes for fighter longevity
Belal Muhammad sees many perks in the UFC adding more weight classes. Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC), a former UFC welterweight champion, previously discussed the possibility of moving up to middleweight had he been able to defend his title a few times. In a recent Q&A on his YouTube channel, Muhammad was asked if the UFC should consider increasing weight classes. "Do I think the UFC needs more weight classes? I do," Muhammad said. "I think that there's a lot of guys that are just stuck in that middle zone from 155 to 170, 170 to 185. There's a lot of in-betweeners. I think it'll give guys more opportunities to fight longer, to fight multiple times a year. "The weight cut kills a lot of people. I know a lot of guys that kill themselves, but even if you add weight classes I think higher guys are going to try to go lower. It's still going to be a bunch of mess, but you're going to get a lot more title fights. So, why not add more weight classes?" Muhammad just turned 37 and is on a quest to regain his title after losing to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315. He still has plenty of fight left in him. "For me, it's about listening to the body," Muhammad said. "I still feel great. I still love the sport. I still love training. (I) just came from training right now. Until I fall out of love with it, until I hate it, until my body is telling me stop it, that's when I start thinking about it. But right now, I still think I'm the best in the world. I'm still working to get back on top, and we are going to get back on top. So for me, it's looking at the next fight, waiting for the next fight, focusing on the next fight, and going from there. One fight at a time."
Time of India
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
How Belal Muhammad used AI to craft perfect response to Ian Machado Garry's accusation
Ian Machado Garry is pushing for a fight with Belal Muhammad at UFC 319 in Chicago. Garry accuses Muhammad of avoiding him. Muhammad responded to Garry using AI, creating a viral moment. He used ChatGPT to generate trash talk. Muhammad hinted at a possible fight in November. The verbal exchange promotes a potential title eliminator fight in the welterweight division. The ongoing allegations by Ian Machado Garry against Belal Muhammad, claiming the latter is avoiding a confrontation between them, have become the subject of a full social media, as well as the ex-UFC welterweight champion has resorted to the use of artificial intelligence to formulate his answer. Garry has been campaigning hard to get a high-stakes fight in the hometown of Muhammad at UFC 319 in Chicago on Aug 16th where years earlier Muhammad snatched the unanimous decision victory over Jack Della Maddalena. Ian Machado Garry intensifies pressure for UFC 319 Chicago showdown Ian Machado Garry has not been shy to express the desire to fight Belal Muhammad in a potential decisive eliminator match, which will be fought in the welterweight division. The Irish-born fighter who had a 16-1 record, carrying 9 wins inside the octagon in his name thinks that Muhammad is deliberately dodging the encounter by providing callouts against other fighters. In particular, Garry referred to the way Muhammad continued referring to Kamaru Usman when the former champion publicly proclaimed that he would not fight shortly. Belal Muhammad continues to call out Kamaru Usman Garry added in his Instagram video callout. Kamaru Usman himself said that he would never fight shortly, so why did he call him out in the first place? He is not addressing me because he does not want to see me." The 27-year-old opponent also accused Muhammad of having referred to the name of Sean Brady considering that Muhammad had already beaten Sean and knocked him out before. Belal Muhammad's AI-generated response creates a viral moment Instead of fashioning a traditional reaction, Belal Muhammad had an unconventional correspondence and found his way to use ChatGPT to create his response to Ian Machado Garry. The 35-year-old Windy City native, who has a 24-win-4-loss record including 15 wins in the UFC, openly admitted that he used artificial intelligence when creating his trash talk, which subsequently became viral throughout the MMA community. Reading the result of the AI suggestion on his phone, Muhammad said: "Ian Garry trying to do some Conor cosplay and Dollar Tree trash talk out here. You have sharper jabs than you have lines, bro. You sound like a teenager who found the McGregor highlights." This was followed by a cutting out of their promotional skills of Garry and the advice that he practice his verbal skills until they are as precise as the ones his barber works out. The artistic strategy has been a huge hit among the viewers of the UFC, and many have endorsed the utilization of technology by Muhammad in the process of promoting fights. Social media responded in a way such as messages saying that the interaction was like "10-7 ChatGPT" and that Belal has a good trash talk game, and it does not even look human at times. Interestingly, the caption by Muhammad hinted at a November date of the possible fight, actually writing "See you in November, dork" which would imply that Muhammad may be looking at a slot on a New York City pay-per-view to avoid the August date that Garry is prodding to be an event in Chicago. Also Read: News Roundup MMA: Robert Whittaker Plans Retirement, Ilia Topuria Targets Islam Makhachev, Gunnar Nelson As the two contenders are ranked right now, in the welterweight division, such verbal exchange of words is a good promotion of a potential title eliminator fight. With Islam Makhachev about to become the next challenger to Jack Della Maddalena later this year, it would stand to reason that whoever wins the possible Muhammad versus Garry manner of matchup would have earned the next title shot, thus causing this rivalry to be even greater concerning the title aspirations of both fighters. Game On Season 1 continues with Mirabai Chanu's inspiring story. Watch Episode 2 here.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Islam Makhachev admits improved Jack Della Maddalena is 'going to be a hard fight'
Islam Makhachev not taking UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena lightly. Standing in Makhachev's pursuit of a second UFC belt is Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who outstruck Belal Muhammad to claim the welterweight title at UFC 315 last month. Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) acknowledges the Aussie has shown vast improvements in his game. Advertisement "It's going to be a hard fight. Honestly, it's going to be," Makhachev told MMA Junkie. "I saw his fight against Belal. He's good, man. When he began fighting in the UFC, he had problems with wrestling, but now he's improved because I've seen him training a lot with wrestlers and grapplers, and that's why he's champion right now. He's good everywhere. But we will see who's the best fighter in the world very soon." Makhachev was surprised to see Della Maddalena dethrone Muhammad, who he's trained with before on numerous occasions. He was also confused by Muhammad's game plan. "It was crazy," Makhachev said. "I know Belal well. I was training with him many times, and I know his skills. I was surprised how he fought. I was surprised by his fight plan. I think he did mistakes. He had the option, but he didn't use (it). He started to wrestle in the last round, maybe. "You have to wrestle from the first round if you have plan to wrestle because you can make him tired – you're not sweating. I saw: Maddalena has improved a lot because he has really good boxing, and he knows everybody is going to try to take him down, and now he has good defense." Advertisement Many viewed Makhachev as a big lightweight, but the move up to welterweight hasn't been as seamless as expected. "I will try to be big, but it's not easy," Makhachev said. "All my life, I've been cutting weight, but now when I want to be big, my weight stays in the same position. I try to lift more. We do some program and slowly, slowly we bring maybe two kilograms now. It's very hard, but I don't want to be big by eating and not training. I want to be with muscles. I want to train, do right lifting program, and bring some muscles." This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Islam Makhachev: Jack Della Maddalena is 'going to be a hard fight'
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Mailbag: In UFC's crowded welterweight division, what's the next move for every contender?
What should the UFC do about all these welterweight contenders thinking they deserve the next title shot? Would we be better off with finish bonuses instead of win bonuses? And what can Khalil Rountree Jr.'s customized fight shorts tell us about the state of MMA fashions and so forth? All hat and much more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesMMA or @ @SLefkaditis: Welterweight. Who against who next? Advertisement First of all, can we all agree that Kamaru Usman is living in some alternate reality with all his title shot talk? I get it, that was a big win for him on Saturday. He needed it and he got it. But the reason he needed it is because he was 0-3 coming into the fight and his last win came in 2021. You don't win one fight and jump immediately to the front of the line. I know his argument is that a 170-pound title fight between the former pound-for-pound best (himself) and the current pound-for-pound best (Islam Makhachev) would be a guaranteed blockbuster. My counter to that is: Would it though? Usman wasn't a massive draw even when he was champ. Makhachev's biggest potential fight is still Ilia Topuria at lightweight. Usman still has work to do to get back in the conversation at welterweight, which is why he should stop playing and accept Belal Muhammad's offer to fight next. As for what should happen with the title, I say Shavkat Rakhmonov should get the winner of Makhachev and Jack Della Maddalena. He earned it. That title shot that "JDM" got out of nowhere was supposed to be Rakhmonov's. So as soon as he's healthy, let's find out if he's really as inevitable as he seems at 170 pounds. That leaves Sean Brady and Ian Machado Garry without dance partners, so put them in there with each other and let's see who's next in line. Advertisement Whatever happens, one rule I'd like us to agree on moving forward is this: The next person to call out Colby Covington automatically falls three spots in the rankings. This simply must stop, you guys. @Mike_Fierce_: Light Heavyweight was once considered the UFC's marquee division with some of the biggest names and greatest fights in the history of the sport. Now ruled by a lackluster champion in Ankalaev, are those days of walking amongst giants now long gone…? First of all, let's tap the brakes on phrases like 'ruled by' when referring to the guy who won the UFC light heavyweight title in March and has yet to defend it. Let's also not forget that for the past year and change the champ was Alex Pereira, who's still one of the vanishingly few actual stars on the UFC roster. We all had fun with that, right? Some of the best and most popular fighters in the short history of this sport have come out of the 205-pound class, from Jon Jones to Chuck Liddell to Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson. Sometimes the division is better than others, but I still think it has the potential to be the UFC's glamour division. Advertisement The fighters who populate the division are big enough to be scary tough guys to the general public, but not necessarily big enough that all the good ones already got scooped up by the NFL. And who knows, maybe Magomed Ankalaev will turn out to be more fun as a champion than we think. Though I will admit, the fact he's basically disappeared from view and from the conversation entirely since winning the title doesn't make me terribly hopeful just now. @BTM99_MMA: Should the fight/win bonus structure be replaced with a generous fight/finish bonus? The last UFC for example was very poor - x2 DQ chasers several bouts resembled sparring sessions I don't hate that idea at all. I think the show/win pay structure sucks for a few different reasons, not the least of which is that there are so many ways for a fighter to put on a great performance and still end up with only half their money. Incentivizing wins above all else can result in some boring fights — and especially some boring final rounds, once a fighter knows he's up on the cards and just has to coast home. Incentivizing finishes seems like it would lead to more exciting fights, and you still end up paying the winner anyway. But as long as we're looking at antiquated pay structures, how about those UFC 'performance' bonuses? It used to be Knockout of the Night, Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night. Then I'm guessing some legal egghead saw the NFL's concussion lawsuits and figured that explicitly incentivizing knockouts could come back to bite the UFC in the butt, so we changed the names but kept the same basic concept. Advertisement Thing is, those bonuses weren't always worth $50,000. For instance, UFC 106 in 2009? Bonuses were $70,000 each. For UFC 142 in 2012 they were $65,000. That was not only a different time for the value of the U.S. dollar (that $70,000 bonus in 2009 is equivalent to about $106,000 today), but also a very different time for the UFC. This promotion makes so much more money now than it did back then. Like, a boatload more. So tell me why the bonus amounts settled at $50,000 and then never budged, except for rare special occasions like UFC 300? How have fighters just accepted that their bonus-worthy finishes are basically worth less than half what Josh Koscheck got for choking out Anthony Johnson at the Mandalay Bay in 2009? Now that's a question they ought to be asking themselves. @JedKMeshew: What if, instead of some fighters getting custom shorts occasionally, every fighter got to make their own custom shorts? Do you think that would be cool? I do, Jed. I think it would be very cool. Also sometimes dumb and weird, but at least interesting. Advertisement That's why I couldn't understand the contingent of fans who, upon seeing Khalil Rountree Jr.'s shorts for Saturday's main event, got hung up on the question of whether or not Rountree was a big enough deal in the UFC to merit his own special shorts. They should all get their own individual shorts! It's an individual sport, and helping people stand out from the crowd should be part of a promoter's goal! Remember back before any of these outfitting deals, when fighters could wear whatever shorts they wanted within the limits of good taste? (Shouts out to Dennis Hallman.) Tito Ortiz had the flame shorts. Liddell had his whole 'Iceman' motif. People got to show some personality. We need more and not less of that. Plus, as Rountree's shorts showed us, some of these fighters actually have some good ideas. @NeedXtoseePosts: How bad is it I sorta of want Charles Oliveira to fall out of the Ilia Topuria fight with the news Arman Tsarukyan is the back up I do feel very bad about it FWIW For my money, Topuria vs. Charles Oliveira has the makings of a more exciting fight. You could argue that Topuria vs. Arman Tsarukyan would be the more meaningful fight at lightweight right now, and I wouldn't disagree. But I also think people are forgetting that 'Do Bronx' can still do the damn thing and might spoil everyone's party at UFC 317. @CrooklynMMA: If you had to go to a club in a UFC fight kit, whose would you choose? Advertisement I would go with a vintage "Giblert" Melendez Reebok kit. Lets people know you're not some newb casual. Shows you have a sense of humor. Plus it's got to be worth something by now, the same way those baseball cards with minor defects are. @Bengonzz01: Will Payton Talbot be the next edmen shabazyan/sage Northcutt considering how the ufc just booked him coming off a loss You're over here acting like Edmen Shahbazyan didn't just win a fight on Saturday. But fine, I see your point. The UFC can sometimes get excited about a young prospect one month only to feed him to the wolves the next. But what's happening with Payton Talbott seems more like the UFC matching up a couple young fighters with similar experience and letting them decide for themselves who's for real. Felipe Lima is newer to the UFC, but has a few more fights and only one loss, like Talbott. Lima is 27, while Talbott is 26. I know it's not a setup fight to help Talbott stack easy wins, but is that what we want out of the UFC? I'm not so sure. When you make fights with one specific outcome in mind, eventually you get disappointed. @ProFightsInfo: What would you think if all the non-UFC MMA companies got together and announced that once a year they will do a joint show that is branded like the World Cup? PFL, ONE, RIZIN, KSW and Cage Warriors (maybe not them w/ the UFC connections). Would fans be excited? Would it succeed? Advertisement I think it would be super exciting and you'd have a good chance of getting every promoter on board except the UFC. It has more to lose than to gain from that, and company execs know it. Would something like this help build the sport? Absolutely. But the UFC is not in the building phase right now. It is in the cash-out phase. One of the reasons it keeps hundreds of fighters under contract is so those other promoters have a harder time getting anything interesting going. The UFC isn't going to ruin that plan by flinging open the door just because fans would love it.
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Kamaru Usman stuns audience with a brutal take on former welterweight champion Belal Muhammad ahead of the former's UFC Atlanta showdown
Belal Muhammad (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) and Kamaru Usman (Photo by Per Haljestam-Imagn Images) Former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman is in need of a blatant win after his last three debacles against welterweight contender Leon Edwards and middleweight fighter Khamzat Chimaev. While the fighter is returning to the division after a failed attempt against a middleweight fighter, Usman, in a recent press meet ahead of his UFC Atlanta bout against Joaquin Buckley, shockingly turned down a fight against one of the top contenders of the division and former champion , Belal Muhammad . Kamaru Usman denies possibility of facing Belal Muhammad anytime soon, explains speculated beef with the fighter Belal Muhammad, the former welterweight champion, recently lost his belt to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315, which resulted in Islam Makhachev's move up to the division, with the intention of eyeing a second championship belt. Belal, who faced defeat for the first time in the last six years, seems to be getting back to work, with his recent training clips going viral. Even though there has been no official confirmation about his next opponent, sources within the promotion have confirmed Shavkat Rakhmonov to be his next potential opponent. Amid all the speculation, Kamaru Usman, who is preparing for a comeback against Joaquin Buckley at UFC Atlanta on June 14, 2025, turned heads with his unapologetic comment on Belal at a recent press meet. Usman and Belal aren't exactly friends owing to their on-set brawl while filming an episode of Pound-4-Pound podcast with Henry Cejudo. The bitterness was reflected in the recent statement made by Usman. 'When Belal Muhammad was champion, there was a reason to fight him. He had a title.' The fighter stated, 'Let's be honest here. We are not the best of friends. But I don't wish him any bad.' Usman reflected on the relationship shared between the two fighters, while analysing the kind of profit he would make from a bout between the two, 'But what do you have to offer me? You are gonna give me a side deal? You gonna throw me a little extra cash on the side? If you are willing to do that, maybe. But who knows?' Usman, however, negated the existence of any bad blood between the two fighters, citing the example of Colby Covington, with whom the Nigerian Nightmare shared a full-on rivalry both inside and outside the Octagon. Belal becoming the champion and his voice being a little louder than usual was more on the lines of being annoying for Usman, and not a reason for an actual rivalry between the two. The Nigerian fighter, towards the end of his statement, however, agreed that a scenario where both fighters are eyeing the belt is an ideal situation for the fighters to face each other. Also read: 'Chill for few weeks' - Sean O'Malley reveals his plans for Octagon return after a second defeat in his year-long rivalry against Merab Dvalishvili Kamaru Usman is now preparing for his upcoming fight against Joaquin Buckley to reestablish himself within the division. There has been no response from Belal on this comment yet.
