Latest news with #Belal
USA Today
05-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Belal Muhammad fires back at 'most active loser' Kevin Holland ahead of UFC 316
Belal Muhammad fires back at 'most active loser' Kevin Holland ahead of UFC 316 It's always the ones that'll never touch gold that have the most to say doesn't This bum lose every other fight he's in — Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) June 4, 2025 MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Kevin Holland got an instant response when he said he was happy to see Belal Muhammad lose the UFC welterweight title. Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) lost his belt to Jack Della Maddalena by unanimous decision at UFC 315. The pair predominantly stood for the five rounds, which earned them the Fight of the Night bonus. Despite the entertaining battle Muhammad put on against Della Maddalena, Holland (27-13 MMA, 14-10 UFC) decided to take a jab at the former champion when asked about the fight. "Du Plessis is a better champ to watch than Belal, so it was pretty cool to see Belal lose the belt," Holland told MMA Junkie and other reporters during Wednesday's media day. "I thought Belal was going to lose the belt, regardless. I said a long time ago when Islam (Makhachev) was teaching him to hold the belt, if it was someone to take the belt from him, it would be Islam. "I thought Islam was going to come up, regardless, and take it. Belal's best win to me was Sean Brady. I was shocked that he ever beat Brady, but I've never thought the world of Belal. He's a hard worker. He puts in the work. But camps boil down to who's going to put in the most work, and as long as you outwork Belal during the camp, you can damn sure outwork him in the fight. That's all he really has is work ethic." Muhammad fired back at Holland. "It's always the ones that'll never touch gold that have the most to say. Doesn't this bum lose every other fight he's in." Holland took to Instagram to ask, "If you haven't defended the belt, did you really get a f*cking belt?" The pair continued to trade barbs, as Muhammad criticized Holland's record, and Holland mocked Muhammad's striking in his loss to Della Maddalena. Your only as good as your last fight!! 😂 😂😂 but nah good one just wished you would of did better with those canelo hands 🤡 — Kevin Holland (@Trailblaze2top) June 4, 2025 Holland will remain at welterweight when he takes on Vicente Luque (23-10-1 MMA, 16-6 UFC) in Saturday's UFC 316 main card opener (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
USA Today
19-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Ian Machado Garry credits Jack Della Maddalena for UFC title win – but sees mental weakness
Ian Machado Garry credits Jack Della Maddalena for UFC title win – but sees mental weakness Ian Machado Garry gives all credit in the world to Jack Della Maddalena for what he did inside the cage at UFC 315, but the admiration might stop there. Machado Garry was cageside as the backup fighter for the title fight May 10 in Montreal. Though his seat could be best described as one of the best in the house, Machado Garry (16-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) said he got the wrong impression of the two fighters' abilities in-person. When he watched the fight back, his opinion changed. "I know how fast I am. I know real time," Machado Garry told Uncrowned on Monday. "I thought both of them looked slow from watching it with my own eyes. Then, I watched it back on TV and it was a completely different look. Jack looked a hell of a lot cleaner than he did in person. He looked a lot faster when you just watched him vs. Belal. When you're sat front row, I'm watching it as if I'm in there. That's my mentality. There was a lot of things Jack did that I thought were quite sloppy. But technically he was the better striker, so he was going to win that regardless. Belal has never been known for his striking." So was it Della Maddalena's skills or Belal Muhammad's shortcomings that led to the end-result of an Australian welterweight champion? Machado Garry thinks it was a combination of both. But in response to comments made by Della Maddalena's coach Ben Vickers on Submission Radio, Garry unloaded the champion's abilities shown in previous fights. "In his last four fights, Jack has had one finish," Machado Garry said. "So he's telling me I need to get into the gym and I need to find some power. He got beat up pretty bad. ... Belal ain't nowhere near the striker I am. I think we can both agree with that. Belal ain't nothing compared to me on the feet. But he looked rough when he was in your studio, yes. I've bend his nose backward the way it should be. His coach should stay out of this. My son giving him M&Ms is a playful, harmful joke, having a laugh about him missing weight. It was all good. It was all a bit of banter. I'm not flying around the world trying to be a superstar, trying to be someone famous. I'm flying around the world ready to fight. If I'm needed, I'll show up and I'll do what I need to do to fight. If he's the champion, I'll take the belt from his hands." It's unclear what Machado Garry's next move is. One week before he stepped on the scale in Montreal, he defeated Carlos Prates by unanimous decision. The win and quick turnaround for the backup opportunity has likely landed him in the UFC's best graces, but with Islam Makhachev headed to welterweight and Shavkat Rakhmonov waiting in the wings, it's unclear when Machado Garry might fight next. One day, Machado Garry sees a showdown with Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC), however. When that time comes, he'll not only be eager to back up his comments about Maddalena's skills, but also make him pay for comments Maddalena made about Machado Garry's family at the UFC 315 pre-fight press conference. "There's a playful joke about a child giving a fighter M&Ms with the baseline comedy of, 'Take these, eat these, miss weight and my daddy will step in and win a world title.' That's just a laugh. It's low-level," Machado Garry said. "Then to go out there and say the comments that he said was just immature. It shows that he's very sensitive. Because if he's said something like that, which he's never acted out of his character, which means what I was doing on fight week irritated him enough to trigger him to say something like that. It means when I do fight him, I'm going to open up a whole can of irritation. Because I reckon he's mentally weak. I can get in his head. But I'll never stoop so low as to mention his child and his children and his wife, because I don't need to. I walk in there in the octagon. I'll punch the mouth off him. I'll take his belt. I don't need to say anything."
USA Today
16-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Manager explains how UFC 315 wasn't all bad for Belal Muhammad, stock went up
Manager explains how UFC 315 wasn't all bad for Belal Muhammad, stock went up Despite Belal Muhammad losing his title, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, believes the former champion's stock went up. Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) was dethroned by Jack Della Maddalena by Jack Della Maddalena in last Saturday's UFC 315 main event in Montreal. Their bloody back-and-forth battle won Fight of the Night. After the fight, White shared photos of Muhammad, who suffered a broken nose, orbital, and split his lip. Abdelaziz hopes fans stop criticizing Muhammad for his fighting style after UFC 315. "This fight, Dana would not stop praising Belal," Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie. "He didn't do media. He was texting me, sending me photos. He said, 'One of the best welterweight fights I've ever seen.' I think Belal may have lost, but he gained so many fans, so much respect. Nobody can ever say Belal is a boring fighter. He's not, and he showed it. "It was a great fight, and I believe if Belal a little bit changed strategy, it would have been different. Sometimes you show up, you prepare, but it's not your night. And guess what? It was a very close fight. It was 3-2, it's not like he got murdered for five rounds. Maybe he had a little bit more damage, but Jack's face was damaged, too. All credit and congratulations to Jack. Belal will be back." With Muhammad losing his title, Islam Makhachev decided to vacate his lightweight title for a move up to challenge Della Maddalena. If Muhammad reinserts himself in the title picture, Abdelaziz ensures his clients would not fight. "Still, Belal and Islam will never fight," Abdelaziz said. "It doesn't really matter if Islam has to go up or down for Belal to get his shot again. We'll work it out. We stick to our guns. The UFC really wanted to make this fight if Belal won, and it was not going to happen. Brotherhood is worth a lot more than money and a lot of other things."
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Security Would Have To Be There'
Kamaru Usman returns from a year and a half away from the sport in June to take on Joaquin Buckley in a battle for welterweight contender status. And while we could be witnessing a changing of the guard from one generation to the next, there's unfinished business between Usman and current 170 pound champion Belal Muhammad. While the footage has never been released, Usman and Muhammad reportedly got into a brawl on the set of Kamaru's Pound 4 Pound podcast last year. In a new interview with ESPN, 'The Nigerian Nightmare discussed the incident and his feelings towards 'Remember The Name.' Advertisement 'There's allegedly a lot of speculation, you know?' he said of the podcast fist fight. 'A lot of things being said.' 'Belal is a guy that was always around and I never really paid attention to because I was doing what I needed to do,' Usman said. 'I was always fighting the next guy up, next guy up. I didn't really pay attention to Belal. But now that I'm forced to actually look at Belal, he's not bad. He's just good everywhere. And that's been working for him. So he's not bad. I'm never in any way discrediting that.' 'Once I was forced to pay attention to him, I started to kinda see the antics that go on outside of the cage, and I was never that guy. If I was champion and the next guy up was barking at me, then of course I would respond and then we get in there and we'd settle it. But Belal just seems to be a different type of champion who is willing to make memes and get on Twitter because he wants the attention. He craves that attention.' 'Even if you're a guy that's not in his division, he's willing to have that back and forth with you,' Usman continued. 'And for me, I just find it a little bit distasteful and I wasn't a part of it. Then he became champion, and he started to come at me with that energy. It was like, 'Oh, you have a problem with me? Well, if you have a problem, I don't really play on the internet. Let's talk it out.' And so we invited him on a podcast and ... it went how it went.' Advertisement 'That's all I can say. Eventually, hopefully, we'll release that podcast because he was only there for like maybe ten minutes. It wasn't really long. And then it was over and he left.' While Usman has a reputation for being a chill dude, he said there would have to be security on hand to keep things from popping off if the two ran into each other again. 'Probably, yeah,' he told ESPN. 'I'm very level headed, especially when I'm outside of the cage. But for the last two years, I haven't been in the thick of it.' 'When you're in the thick of it, you're on alert all the time. Me and George St-Pierre, we had this conversation where he expressed that to me. He's like, 'When you're in it, you're always this defensive guy.' And I hadn't been that for a while, but now that I'm back in the thick of it, yeah. They probably have to have security back there with us.' Advertisement Belal Muhammad defends his welterweight title against Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 on May 10th. Kamaru Usman fight Joaquin Buckley in the main event of a June 14th Fight Night in Atlanta. What happens after that depends on who wins and who loses ... or if there's enough security around to stop something from going down outside the cage. More from
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Former UFC champion Israel Adesanya reacts to Jack Della Maddalena dethroning Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 - 'Well deserved and well-earned'
Israel Adesanya and Jack Della Maddalena. Photo via Getty Images All eyes were glued on the UFC 315 title bout between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena for the deciding factor associated with the outcome of the bout. In recent times, several fighters moved up the weight categories. Current lightweight Islam Makhachev's transition was also highly dependent on this bout. While a majority of the combat sports community and fans believed that Belal would retain his belt, to everyone's surprise, Della Maddalena dethroned Belal to become the new welterweight champion . Operation Sindoor 'Our job is to hit target, not to count body bags': Air Marshal Bharti on Op Sindoor Precautionary blackout imposed across parts of Rajasthan, Punjab 'Indian Navy was in position to strike Karachi': Vice Admiral on Operation Sindoor Former UFC Champion Israel Adesanya reacted to this unexpected unanimous win secured by JDM. After a 5-round long fight, Jack Della Maddalena became the second Australian to win a championship belt at UFC 315 The UFC 315 main card was spearheaded by two title bouts - Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena in the welterweight division and Valentina Shevchenko vs. Manon Fiorot in the women's flyweight division. While Shevchenko successfully retained her flyweight championship belt, Belal had a disappointing night, with Jack ending his title reign by a unanimous decision. Belal had previously won the title against Leon Edwards at UFC 304. Israel Adesanya recently posted a video on his official YouTube channel, the Freestylebender , where he shared his live reaction to the main card bouts of the event. The fighter was seen most excited during the headline bout between Belal and Jack. Adesanya even picked Jack as his favorite for the bout and vouched for his win. While going across the recap of the punches being landed across the rounds, Izzy would occasionally shout, 'For your life!!!' as a way of supporting JDM. Towards the end of the video, after JDM became the second Australian after Alexander Volkanovsky to become a world champion, Adesanya shared his thoughts on the win secured by the fighter. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 10 Mysterious Photos That Cannot Be Explained True Edition Undo Israel Adesanya Reacts To Jack Della Maddalena & Navajo Stirling's EPIC Fights At UFC 315 'I love it when one of us does it and gets the gold, the pinnacle of the sport, and couldn't've happened to a nicer guy. Well deserved and well-earned, guy, he did this the hard yards just through his hands, through them thangs. And f*ck, I can't wait to see what's next for him.' Adesanya continued, 'Islam's next, but tonight's about Jack. F**king, respect and salud.' Also read: 'Alex ducking' - Fans go crazy as Magomed Ankalaev reveals UFC offer for International Fight Week JDM's win will change the dynamics of fighters across the divisions. Islam Makhachev gets the opportunity to move up the weight and claim a title shot with a two-division championship status aim. Ilia Topuria will probably have to face Charles Oliveira for a vacant lightweight belt after Makhachev moves up the division.
