Bilal Muhammad
Appearances
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And I was like, bro, you're a fighter? And he's like, yeah, man, I'm a fighter. I train at this gym. And it ended up being, like, near my parents' house. So whenever I would come home on the weekends, I would go see him, visit him. And then we would train a little bit.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
and then uh he just started teaching me a little bit and he started teaching me a little bit more so every weekend i would come home then i transferred to a closer college here started training more full time and then i was like let me take an amateur fight so after like three or four months of training with them i got an amateur fight And then I was locked in. Here in Chicago? Yeah.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I was hooked. My hand got raised. I won the fight. But I was addicted to it. I have an addictive personality. When I do something, I go super hard. I go all in with it. So then I was like... I could always go back to college. I always finished college, go to law school, whatever. But I'm like, let's see how far we can go with this. We started training. We started working. And then...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Anybody from Chicago, that's the landmark for people that want to work out, people that want to push. Walter Payne's been there. Any fighter that trains goes there. You'll see it. When it's nice outside, it's packed. It'll be hard to even run up them.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I went pro after three amateur fights. And I said, we're just going until we lose. And then we got to 9-0. We won a tight NFC belt. And then we got signed to the UFC short notice. What was it like getting signed to the UFC? How did you find out and stuff? They called me. It was during Ramadan.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And I was like fasting and they called me for... It was like three or four week notice to fight Alan Joban. And at the time, he was a big name. He had a good streak. And I'm undefeated. I just won a bout. Who called you from there? It was my manager. Okay. Yeah. So then I was like, let's go. Because...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
was like at three and oh and i want to try it off the ultimate fighter didn't make it i was at six you know tried off the ultimate fighter didn't make it and then i kept winning on the thing i was like man are they ever gonna call me i'm never gonna get the shot and then once i finally get that call you're like this is it this is my spot i'm gonna make it and it was in vegas it was that uh it was like an international fight week two where they had like three events on friday saturday sunday and uh i fought on friday
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then I went out there and it was like, it was a war. It was like fight of the night, but I lost. And it was like my first loss. And then you're like, dang, am I not good enough to be in the UFC? Do I not belong here? So then I was like, call my manager, bro, give me another fight right away. And then he got me a fight probably like a couple months later. And then I won.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then I was like, all right, we're back on it. We're good. We're this. We belong here. And then I got called for the Maddox Square Garden fight. uh ufc 205 like the biggest card and then uh i go out there and then uh i lost it was my first time ever getting knocked out and that was when i was like Dang, I'm one and two in the UFC. I'm not good enough to be here. That was it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I was like, they're going to cut me. And then they finally called me a short notice fight probably a month later for Randy Brown. We won that one. We got a new contract. And then from there on out, we just kept winning and just kept pushing it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
The training, for sure. For myself... So 9-0 when I was training, when I first was coming up, there was no structures to the training. It was mostly just me and Lou, and then we'll have other training partners. I was training with a couple of band weights, my other boy Horacio, who's a 45er. But we were just, all right, let's spar today. All right, let's wrestle today. Let's do this today.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So there wasn't really a system. So I learned after that. And then after I took that second loss, I was like, all right, well, I need to find other guys to train with. I went down to Milwaukee, started training with Anthony Pettis and the guys at Rufus Sport. And at the time, he was the champion. So I started learning more from those guys, seeing how they do it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then I'll bring that back here to this team here. And then I'd go to other gyms, learn from them, other gyms, learn from them. And I think it just helped me build a system of what works for me and how we do it. And I think like right now, the structure that I have, we do a hard session in the morning.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then afternoon session is more like a boxing style where we're gearing it toward game planning for a specific opponent.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
and then you know obviously i have strength conditioning and what you call it but i made it more of a science instead of uh let's just go out there and see what happens so now it's like everything's strategy everything's what's my opponent we're gonna break him down we're gonna do this this and this for this guy we're gonna do drills when we're not in camp we're gonna fix all the stuff that we're not good at and then it's just constant training constant improvement instead of we're not an oh we're doing everything right we don't need to fix anything
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I mean, for me, your next fight is always your toughest fight. I never ever look past an opponent because it's so hard in the sport. But for myself to see where I am right now, and then skill-wise, body-wise, I feel like I'm the best I've ever been. And when I'm looking at everybody else in the division, even looking at Jack, I just don't see...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
For me, with my UFC career, I want to leave the legacy of beating the best guys, taking the toughest challenges and winning them all. Obviously, if Hamzat wins, which I think he will, at 185, and then he walks through a couple of guys and he's that guy that they think is untouchable, I think me moving up and beating him... That would cement me. As one of the best. To ever do it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And especially now. Being at my weight class. You got a lot of hungry guys. A lot of undefeated guys. Guys who they still think will beat me. Jack's on a 17 fight winning streak. So I think there's a lot of guys for me to beat at my weight class. But I also have five top ten wins in my weight class.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So if I get out there and win two or three more, that'll be eight top ten wins in your weight class. And there's no other champion that's done that or had to do that.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I think Jack, Shavka... And I'm hoping Usman wins. Because I want Usman. He's that guy, right? When they're thinking of... They had competition with him and GSP. Debates. Who's the GOAT between them and Welterweight? Who do you think was more GOATed? Usman or GSP? GSP.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I don't even think Usman should... Like, I'm not a hater, right? But when I look at the guys that he's fought... Who do you think would have won, though, in their prime?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It would have been close, but I think GSP, he's just so smart. And he's just... He's my favorite. He's better everywhere. I think he's more well-rounded. Usman is obviously good, right? But...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
the guys that you know when you're having rematches with kobe and you have a rematch with masvidal and you didn't fight different stylistic guys right i fought the the maya the wonder boy the the luke they were all on good streaks at that time gilbert burns as well undefeated chan brady like i had to keep fighting a different style every time for him it's like all right well masvidal back to back all right cool
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Colby back to back and now we're all realizing Colby sucks so it's like when you look back at his fights who had wars with a guy who sucks it's like well how good was really Usman and then a guy who got knocked out by Leon and then lost to Leon and then I dominated Leon it's like Was he really that good? Was he really goaded like a GSP?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I think GSP would have beat him. Bro, like... GSP would have took him on the feet. I think Khabib would take him down. Like, to me... No! Bro, he would take him down. I don't think so. When he grabs you, when he... You think? Bro, I've seen him, like, throw two or five pounders around.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
He's the best. But the thing is with Khabib, to piece him up, you have to get close enough to hit him, right? When you get close enough to hit him, he's going to get his hands up. You think he would have took him down? I think he would have took him down. I don't know. We've seen him get taken down by Josh Kosciuk, right? We've seen...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Hendrix take him down, but those guys were more college wrestlers sure I think when you look at Habib style of wrestling and grappling and ground-to-pound it was something that really he didn't have to fight could more of the guys that he fought were like specialists and When he fought Johnny Hendricks. I forgot about the Hendricks one. Yeah, right? He was a college wrestler.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
He fought a specific way. Even Jake Shields was a jiu-jitsu type wrestler, grappler. He fought him a specific way. Nick Diaz, grappler, specific way. I think Habib, his style of grappling and wrestling, you didn't have to deal with it back then. A lot of those guys in the era didn't have to deal with them back then. But now, like you see, the Dagestani guys are coming, man. They're crazy, bro.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Honestly, you level up everywhere. Like the hard work. You were there, right? People were always like, what's the secret with them guys? They just push so hard. Every single person in that room, they really care about each other. It's a brotherhood. It is a brotherhood.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Exactly, right? And then nobody has, like, an ego. Like, I'm not jealous of you that you're the champion now. They all, like, Habib will sit there and buy all these guys, you know, go to the nicest clothing stores, buy them clothes, and he'll be like, this is my favorite store. And he'll go to just, like, regular buy t-shirt stuff. But he's taking care of everybody around him.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And just, like, shows you, like, his humbleness. There's not, like, I'm sitting first class, you're sitting in the back. Like, he doesn't have none of that. No, yeah. We've seen that with the... playing into the... Bro, exactly, right? It just shows you what type of guy he is. That's what I built around myself.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
The guys that I have around me, the team that I have around me, we've all been together probably for like 15 years. We all trained together. We all started together. So even when I got to title fight, people were like, oh, come here to this gym. Go to a bigger gym here. Go there. And I was like, no, these are the guys that got me here. We all got here together.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
We're all going to win the title together. So even winning the belt, it was like a journey for all of us. We achieved it all together Because they're sacrificing time for their day to come and help me train. The people that work with me that are in my corner, they have other jobs. They have families. But they're going on the road with me. They're going to practices with me. They're watching me.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
They're studying tape. And I don't take that lightly. It just makes me want to work that much harder for them. Because it's a selfish sport. But it's also a team sport as well where... Like, I see you putting it all in, so I'm going to go all in for you guys too.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I would say at least 20, 30 mil. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For that, like, McGregor, Khabib, too? Even with, like, the bigger names. At that time, Oliveira was blowing up, and he had the hype, right? They were like, oh, Khabib's running from Oliveira. Like, there was nobody bigger than Khabib. And even with the GSP fight, if he would have came back for that fight, imagine how big that would have been.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
You got to pull it all out. And they're all just, like, waiting for it to happen. And I feel like Dana and all them guys are, like... They're waiting, too.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I don't see anybody, like, beating him. But, like, even for himself. He let it go and he's like, Islam's taking over. He's the one guy taking over now. He stuck to his words, stuck to his guns. He's still in the gym training with these guys, still in the gym coaching these guys, sacrificing his time.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It's cool to see because somebody that stood by their word like that, there's not a lot of guys that would do that. I saw you said he said something to you that kind of relieved you of pressure? Yeah. What was that? When he courted me for the Sean Brady fight, like being religious, being Muslim, like he was just so chill and calm in the back room. And he's like, brother, you did all the work.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
There's no need to be nervous, right? Allah's plan is the best plan. If God wants you to lose, it's meant to lose. There's a reason for it. And you just say, Alhamdulillah, that means thank God. So even when you win, you thank God. When you lose, you thank God because it's protecting you from something. Or it's putting you somewhere in a spot where you can do something else.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Even when I look back at my losses, it felt like the worst thing that could happen to me at the time. I'm like, bro, I did everything. I worked hard. I trained hard. Why did I lose? Why was I meant to lose that fight? Why did it happen like this? But then hindsight is 20-20. When you're looking back, it made me change. It made me grow. It made me learn.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It made me want to get better here, here, and here. And then I'm like, oh, so that was the reason for it. Those were the tests for it. So when he said that to me, it just like clicked because you're always like, you know, you get the nerves in the back room, you're like this, but you have like a freedom about yourself when you're like, the result doesn't matter.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Whatever happens in these 25 minutes, 15 minutes, it's meant to happen. It's just a small window. And at the end of the day, tomorrow, a week later, it's going to be forgotten no matter what. What do you think drives you to fight? Is it legacy or is there people around you? Like I said, the people around me that have been with me since the beginning. But also for myself, it's just like...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
just proving everybody who's thought that i couldn't make it here like i've had so many people that oh you can't do it you're not gonna make the ufc oh he says he's gonna be a champion you're not gonna make a chance you're not gonna be a champion like who people in real life or just online people in real life yeah yeah i've had people i had family members that when i had my first uh win in the ufc like well at least you got one win in the ufc so if you lose the rest of them at least you could say you had one
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And I was just like, is that what you really think? Like, you don't think I'm good enough? But it just made me like, all right, cool. Like, you don't believe me, but watch me do it. Watch me prove you wrong. Watch me show you. The people online doesn't really matter, right? Like, the people that really matter are the people that are in your circle.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
ilia's fight gaethje's fight and then welterweight i'm sure like all those guys are waiting to see what happens so it's it's kind of crazy yeah but i just like i already told them like there's no need to wait i got i'm gonna win so whatever your plans are before that and i'm like especially with myself i already know there's so many people that are just like have their their draft saved of their tweet that's gonna be like they're hoping that i lose and they're gonna have to keep it in the drafts because once we win they're gonna have to just like erase that memory from them who's next after this if you win
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
The people that, like, see me every day, see how hard I work. Like, I've had coaches that will tell you, like, when I first met Coach Mike, he saw me train one time. He said, you could be a champion. And I was just like, no, I don't believe him. But he like stuck with me. He helped me grow. He helped me get better.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Oh yeah. And he has like a good eye and he's been with the, like the best of the best. And then you're thinking like, what do you think made him say that? I think he just saw my work ethic. Like, when I go into practice room, when I push, it's like I try to push harder than everybody else. And, like, he has guys.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
One of my main training partners is Ignacio Balmondes, who's been training since he was, like, eight years old. And, like, he has, like, the most talent I've ever seen. So, like, I went with him the first time. Like, bro, who the fudge is this kid? And he's a beast. And then, like, but, like, I didn't back down. I'm a guy, if you go with me and you beat me, I want to go with you tomorrow.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Like, I go with Habib. He'll freaking... smash me. And then I'm just like, well, let's try it again tomorrow. If I make him work a little bit harder tomorrow, that means I know I'm getting better. I'm growing. I'm not a guy that's going to shy away. Oh, you beat me. Let me go with somebody else. Who's the easier matchup? And I think that's just that mentality he saw.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I mean, obviously for me, that's always the goal, right? If I go into every fight and finish, it would make my job easier. And then we go with that. Like I said, every fight we look back at the last fight and we try to fix things and evolve and get better and grow. But I'm fighting the best in the world. It's not easy to finish these guys. It's not easy to beat these guys, right?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
A lot of these guys... training specifically for you. So for me, it's like you get stressed about it and you're like, I want to finish more. I want to do this more. But at the end of the day, I'm dominating these guys for a full 25 minutes. I'm beating these guys in all aspects of MMA. I'm beating them in the striking, in the grappling, in the wrestling. So the finishes will come.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
They will happen. And they'll just come at the right time, right? And I just can't be impatient with it. And I can't try to rush it because that's where something goes wrong. You get caught or you get sloppy in there. So for me, it's just like staying the course. And then once they start happening, it'll be at the highest level.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah, I always do that. I always come out with these descriptions. Like I said, people look at him and they think he's a boxer. But to me, I think I have the best boxing in the division. We had this thing we call Canelo hands. We work... Outside of camp. We're getting better with our hands.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And when people saw me fight Leon and I said I was going to outstrike him, they were like, no, you can't outstrike him. I'm like, watch me outbox him. And we did that. For Jack, he only has one way to win, right? It's with striking. It's with boxing. So for me, I want to go out there and embarrass him with boxing.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I want to go out there and outbox him and then make him want to grapple, make him have to do something that he can't do, that he's not uncomfortable with. There's not a plan B for him.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So once he gets there and he realizes that he's not good enough with the hands, not good enough with the striking, and he looks at his coaches and his coaches have nothing else to say to him, that's when the finish will come. That's when the breaking point will come for him. He's never fought anybody like me who's good everywhere.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
He hasn't fought anybody like me that can go hard from the first round to the last round. And once he gets in there and he sees it and he feels it, That's when they break. That's when the pressure comes. That's when the inexperience will hurt them.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah, 100%, right? Because it was the hardest thing. It was the longest process for me to even get the title shot. Yeah, you had the longest road, for sure. Bro, I was on a 7-5 winning streak. Oh, well, all right, now here goes 15-0 Sean Brady. You're like, bro, okay, 8-5 winning streak. Oh, well. you still need one more.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then I was like, okay, well, here goes Gilbert Brent on three weeks notice. If you win this for sure, you'll get it. And then you're like, well, all right, well, I got to say yes. And then you go out there, you beat him. And then it was like, maybe you got to do one more. And you're like, bro, come on. What else do I got to do? Like, what else do you need? Is there something you got against me?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Is there this or that? But at the end of the day, they stuck to their word, right? They gave me the shot. It was, I think, the perfect moment for me because it was in Leon's country. We had a fight at 5 a.m. We had to go all the way out there. The first time I fought him was in the Apex. There was nobody there. It was a short-notice fight. So this time was the biggest stage.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It was meant to happen like this. I was the underdog. The morning of the fight was like a sense of relief, right? Because it was here. We didn't have to wait no more. There was nothing else. I think it was like the least stress I ever felt before a fight. And then once I got the belt wrapped around my waist, it was more so like we did it. They didn't believe in us.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
They didn't think we could do it. Even after my Gilbert Burns fight, I saw Dana in the back and he was like, man, they keep doubting you, but you keep winning. And then it was kind of like that same feeling after this fight, man. Nobody believed it, but you did it. And then we're going to keep doing that, I think.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So it just makes me want to just keep showing them and keep proving them the doubters and the haters wrong.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
That means they'll ask me what my body feels like. For me, it was like... Being the champion now, I was like, let's do a quick turnaround. When do you guys want it? And then they called me for the Shafkat fight last December. We had the infection, so messed up those plans. So with this one, I was expecting it to be Shafkat. And then they were like, well, he's out.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It was either between JDM and Buckley. And then for me, it was like, I don't really care who it is, which one it is. Just let me know the date. And they gave me the date. And then it was Buckley. Then they were like, well, it's going to be JDM. So for me, I'm like, all right, I'm down. So as long as I had the date, the time, as long as I had the right camp, I'm good with it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then even with this fight, I can be come out unscathed. I'm ready to go again. You think Buckley's... What do you think of him? You think he's the real deal? Or no? I think he's the real deal. He's got a good streak going. He's trying to obviously promote himself and talk his way up. If he beats Usman, I think that'll be the fight. That fight's going to have some hype on it. Yeah. I think.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I don't know what his injury is. They're very quiet with it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And they both can talk a little bit. Yeah. Even if he doesn't have any beef with you, he's going to talk. If you could talk about...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
dc and make a have a beef with dc randomly i'm like bro this is like the nicest guy with dc yeah he just said something stupid about him i don't know what he said oh yeah dc's the best yeah buckley will say a lot of dumb stuff right um i just don't think he's he's good at promoting promoting but at least he's trying um so for me i don't think the trash talk's gonna be good just because usman's terrible at trash talk and buckley's terrible at trash talk but i think the fight will be entertaining all right well
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then... Usman and Buckley just got announced. Everybody's saying they're the next guy, right? Even, like, Ian. Like, he's talking. He's being vocal with it. Honestly, out of all of them, I think Sean Brady probably had the best performance. Like, beating Leon Edwards like that, finishing him. He looked the best, but obviously I finished him. So is that a fight you'd want to run back?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Or, like... I mean, I think he's earned it. Like, he's gotten there. But, like, if... If I'm being honest, obviously, I think if Usman goes out there and he gets a big finish against Buckley, or even if Buckley gets a big finish beating Usman and Kobe back-to-back, I think that would put him ahead of everybody else.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I think Ian and Usman would probably be the funnest build-up because they both know how to talk. Yeah. And it's always fun when you have a little bit back and forth. So for myself, even with Leon, there's trash talk. So it made it a funner build-up. With Jack, he's not really a talker. So it's not really a fun build-up. But obviously, the fight's the fight, no matter what.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So he just has to wait until his cartilage grows back. And then he just tries to figure it out. And then it takes like two years. For it to come back in there, try stem cells, try collagen or something. But I think he was waiting for the right moment. And I think right now he's thinking that, all right, well, Buckley's running hot right now. It's a winnable fight for him.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So maybe if he goes out there, he beats Buckley. He knows that his name's big enough to skip the line.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
We've always thought, for myself, when I got into the sport, I always looked at who's the champion, who's the guy, and I always thought I could beat all these guys. For myself, when I looked at the matchup stylistically, I knew my style...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
uh was his like his kryptonite like a pressure fighter that was in your face that was going to break you i knew i was going to do that and for me i had probably like a year and a half just to focus and train for leon because they made me weigh in as a backup i had to wait a full year for him uh i had a fight like stylistic i fought like daniel maya who's a straight grappler wonder boy who's a straight up striker luke who's a knockout artist so i've fought all these different styles and
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And whenever you do a camp for a specific style, it levels you up. So I'm always getting better every camp. I'm growing every camp. And when I saw Leon, I was like, there's nothing that he's going to show me that I haven't seen before. And also just adding the anger part of it, right? Like he poked me in the eye the first time we fought. And then he was like acting like I didn't deserve it.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I didn't earn it. I was on a knife fight winning streak. So that did nothing but just like put a chip on my shoulder and make me want to embarrass him in front of his people. Is there beef between you and Usman? Oh, bro. Yeah, I don't like him. He was one of those guys, right? When he was a champion, he acted like I didn't exist. And I was on a good streak.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
He was always, oh, let me just rematch Kobe. Let me rematch Masvidal. But then when I won the belt, now he wants to, like, talk, right? And his ego is so big. I went on his podcast. What was good with the mystery podcast? Have you ever talked about that or no? I've talked about it. I've said about it. But, like, for me...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
it's i understand why they wouldn't want to put it out right like if you're on a podcast with somebody if i was on a podcast but you want to make you cry on your own podcast like you're going to hold that in and you're not going to put it out there what happened uh we were on this podcast and um henry suhudo like Was like, you know, how does it feel to be champion?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And, you know, you're at the top now. And I'm like, you know, it feels good right now because everybody wants to listen to you. Everybody thinks you're the champ. Everybody has to look up at you now. And Usman's like, I was a champ too. I was like, yeah, but you're not the champ anymore. And then he just couldn't let it go. He's like, but I'm right there.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I was like, no, bro, you're on a three fight losing streak. And he's like, I still had the belt. And I was like. I'm the champion now, but he just couldn't give me my props, right? It was just one of those where he was just like, anything you do, I do better than you. And then I was like, but you didn't take the head kick better than me.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And I think that just triggered him where he was just like, I don't play these games, man. It's on site when people talk like that. And I was like, we're right in front of each other on site.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
We had the same manager, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ali. Ali's the GOAT. Bro, yeah, he's the man. And when he told me to go do their podcast, I was like... Are you sure? He said, no, brother, it's going to be professional. It's going to be this. Like, you're good. I was like, bro, it doesn't matter to me. Like, I'm the champ. I don't really care. I'll go on the podcast.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then, you know, Henry Cejudo twisted his ankle. I had to break it up. Oh, you guys actually got into a physical?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
yeah but have you guys said that publicly ever or no yeah I mean I think it's I didn't know that out there but like I said they had the footage right maybe he's waiting to oh so you guys actually got into it I didn't know that yeah that's funny yeah damn so that would be a good build up for a fight then right like he wants the Buckley fight put it out there but like I said they gotta have the right editors the right people to fix it all up to hide his tears
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
For me, like, the loyalty means more than anything, especially with those guys. Like, they've done, and it helped me so much. Like, you've been with them. You've trained with them. Like, you understand, like, the brotherhood. Yeah, of course. Of them guys.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So, like, I would never want to, like, disrespect them in any way. Or I couldn't even, like, fight them. But Habib was in their corner. It was just, like, breaking my heart because he was one of the guys. Yeah. When I was still coming up, even though he's younger than me, I still look up to a guy like that.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Being a Muslim, being religious, and seeing how he brought the religion into the sport and showed it. How he portrayed himself and was a champion. And like I said, he's helped me and he's never asked for anything in return. So for those guys, I wouldn't do it. I would move up before fighting them guys.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And then for myself, I feel like I'm at the point now where if I get two wins, two title defenses, I can start looking and move up. When I'm looking at 85, I think it's an easy division for myself. I don't think it would be a problem. So me and this guy can go double champ back to back.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah. I mean, he's like, same thing. Yeah. Same thing. Like disgust. And obviously, like you said, everybody's going to keep asking the same question or they're going to keep like, oh, it's because he's afraid of this guy. He's moving. He's running from this guy or that guy. And it's like, at the end of the day, there's like really no fighter afraid of any other fighter.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So like for ourselves and for myself. Like, I consider them guys brothers, and I would never fight, like, a brother like that. And I couldn't see myself, like, doing a training camp for those guys or wanting to fight those guys, right? Yeah. Who do you think Islam should fight next, then? Honestly, I think Justin makes a lot of sense. For Justin, he's, like, on a, what is he, 3-1 in his last four?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
He's never fought him before. And people are always going to watch Justin, right? Obviously, Tapuria moved up. But for Islam, who fought Volkanovski twice and didn't get any credit for it, people are like, oh, he fought a 45er. So it doesn't really make sense for him to go, all right, let me fight another 45er. And then he beats him.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Man, you killed it. That was tough. For the first time hitting the stairs, I don't think I've seen anybody do as good as you. Really? Yeah, I've seen fighters break.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And they'll be like, well, Teporia has the option of saying, well, I'm just going to go back down to 45. I was too small. But I think Teporia is vacated, right?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
But say he goes up there and he loses, he still has the option of like, well, I'm going to go back down with the champion. I knocked out Volkanovski. Let me, I'll get a rematch right away. Like he'll get that option. Because I heard he just can't make that weight no more. I mean, you could always make the life changes, right?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
There's a lot of guys, especially like him, where he cuts weight drinking wine. And he could do that fight week. I think he probably gets tired of cutting weight. Cutting weight's not fun. And he probably thinks that with the confidence from knocking out Holloway and Volkanovski back-to-back, he thinks that, yeah, I can knock these guys out.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
But the only fight he's had at 55, he's gotten dropped by Jai Herbert. And then we've seen him get out-muscled and out-wrestled by a couple guys at 45. I think Islam's just going to be way too big for him. But if he goes out there and he beats a guy like Oliveira or even like a Justin or Dustin, then you earn your spot.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I think that for him, it'll just show them and it'll make that fight even bigger with Islam. And then I guess there's Armand at that division too, right?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah, there's so many good fights for him. Paddy just won too. Paddy too. For his line, there's guys that he hasn't fought, right? And there's other guys that are up there that are hyping it up and that'll be huge fights. Armand is...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
They'll get to the 6'1". Nah, bro, I'm done. I'm done. But you pushed it. You went hard even with the last sprint. I was like, nah, he's going to stop. He's going to stop.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
beast but that injury last one so like for him now it's just trying to get another fight out the way but it's hard because nobody wants to fight anybody every one of them saying like now I'm gonna wait for the title fight Oliver I'm not fighting nobody but for the title to pour you I'm not fighting nobody but for the title Justin I earned a title shot so like you said I think they're all just waiting for the the dominoes to fall in after next week and I think a lot of like the questions will be answered
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Somebody asked me in an interview, they're like, would you move up to 85 if Hamza was champion? And I said, bro, I was calling him out when I was at Welterweight. When he was Welterweight, I literally wore that shirt to the event. And I had shirts I was throwing out to the crowd. For myself, I'm a guy like... I want to fight the toughest guys, the toughest test. He's undefeated.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
They think that he can walk through everybody. You're not going to walk through me. So I was calling him out. And then he posted like a pony yesterday. And he's like, where are you going?
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it was like a patty, you know, you little sausage or something like that.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
Yeah. But I was like, all right, bro, I've been called you out. I asked for the fight a million times. You don't really know what to do when you get called a pony too.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
And for myself, it's not beef. Even if I fight Shafqa, he's Muslim too. So... I haven't trained with those guys. I haven't sweated, bled with those guys. So it's not the same thing. And for me, I look at it as a sport. They all want what I have. I'm the champion. So I want what they have. He's got that undefeated streak. I want to take that from him. I want to take his O from him.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
So it's all competition. At the end of the day, it's like... I want to leave this sport with my resume showing that I fought the best guys and I beat the best guys. When people think of me, he took the toughest test. And he went the longest road to get where he got. And he did what nobody thought he could do. I started at 23 years old. I wasn't born with it. I wasn't from the mountains.
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
I wrestled two years in high school. And this was all just like...
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
natural heart natural skill natural hard work that got me here wow you started at 23 yeah yeah and how old are you now 36 how did you start i was in college i was i was at u of i and i was just like going to be a lawyer and then uh like i said i wrestled at high school uh in south side of chicago and we had a coach there uh lewis taylor and uh he like left after like one year because we were
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Belal Muhammad | Ep. 156
It wasn't the best school. They didn't really care about the wrestling team. And then he was, like, gone. And I was like, whatever happened to him? But he was, like, that cool young coach that you had a connection with. And then when I was in college, I randomly saw him in a newspaper. And he was fighting for Strikeforce. So then I just, like, reached out to him on Facebook.