Belal Muhammad entered the Achthoek before he once became UFC champion.
Tonight the striping welterweight King returns to the main event of UFC 315. Continue with a failed booking with a injured Shavkat Rakhmonov, Belal Muhammad will defend his title for the first time against #5-continent Jack della Maddalena.
Currently on an undefeated line of 11 fight, Muhammad achieved welterweight last summer with a rather dominant title victory on Leon Edwards on UFC 304.
It was a long time ago for Mohammed, who found MMA in his early 1920s. At 22, Muhammad got into the Octagon on UFC 125, not as a hunter but first as a fan.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty images
Belal Muhammad practiced his Takedowns after sneaking in the Achthoek in 2011
UFC 125: Resolution took place on January 2, 2011, the same night, the same night Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fought to a split trek in a lightweight title fight.
A young Muhammad was present in Las Vegas, Nevada and Cageside, Muhammad decided to enter the Achthoek while the Arena was empty.
A video on the UFC broadcast showed the future world champion Shadowboxing and doing shot exercises, practicing his Takedowns, who won him so many fights.
Muhammad bounced around the canvas and grabbed the cage tires, knowing that one day he would return like a UFC hunter. At the time, Muhammad had only one amateur fight in his name a few months earlier.
The fate of the UFC is in the hands of Belal Muhammad
Often mocked as one of the least recognizable champions of the UFC, everyone will pay attention to 'remembering the name' for what drives at the UFC 315 Main Event.
Earlier this week, UFC CEO Dana White and Ilia Topuria both confirmed that the next lightweight title fight is determined by whom the welterweight title takes between defending champion Muhammad and challenger Jack della Maddalena.
If Muhammad wins, Islam Makhachev will more than probably meet Topuria in a long -awaited title fight in lightweight.
If Della Maddalena pulls the upset, the Ilia Topuria versus former champion Charles Oliveira would be with Makhachev to fight to JDM for a second belt at Welterweight. Makhachev says that he will not leave the lightweight title, regardless of tonight's result.
How the division of 155LB and 170LB will shake depends on a Muhammad Belal, a champion that has not lost in the last five years.
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