Before Belal Muhammad went on an undefeated line of 11 fight, he was 1-2 in the UFC.
The UFC Welterweight Champion has really found its foot in the best promotion, not once lost in the past six years. Muhammad dominated the legendary striker Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson, Sean Brady and Gilbert Burns on their way to winning the title of Leon Edwards last summer on UFC 304.
Now Set Belal Muhammad to defend the belt for the first time in the main event of UFC 315. Muhammad will compete against top candidate Jack della Maddalena.
The best in the world – life cannot be better for Mohammed. But looking back at his career, there was a time when 'remembering the name' was convinced that he would lose his UFC track.
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Belal Muhammad was afraid that UFC would cut him off after he was lost against Vicente Luque in 2016
Muhammad wondered for the first time if he was 'good enough' to be in the UFC when he lost to Alan Jouban in his promotion debut in July 2016. It was the first loss of Muhammad after 9-0 on the regional scene.
Muhammad immediately asked another fight and bounced back a few months later with a TKO from Augusto Montaño.
The welterweight did not stay in the profit column for too long and suffered a KO loss two months later by Vicente Luque in UFC 205 from Madison Square Garden.
“It was my first time I was ever eliminated,” said Muhammad on the entire podcast.
“I had something like that, Dang, I am 1-2 in the UFC …
“I'm not good enough to be here. I [was thinking] Like that it was. They are going to cut me. “
That would of course not be the case for Muhammad, where De Jager goes 14-1 (1 AD), since his loss against Luque in 2022.
'[UFC] In the end, for a discount fight, probably a month later for Randy Brown.
“We won it. We got a new contract. And from that moment we just kept winning and just kept pushing it,” Muhammad continued.
How a 1-2 Belal Muhammad turned its UFC career around
Once at the point of a UFC release, Muhammad knew that he should make some changes to keep his champion dreams alive.
Mohammed was not your traditional MMA hunter with limited struggle experience in high school. The UFC champion had PFL champion Louis Taylor for a while as his coach for a while and followed him to his MMA sports school where he would start his amateur career.
“The training, sure,” said Muhammad about what changed for him after a 1-2 stint in the UFC.
“For myself, 9-0, when I first discussed, there was no structure in training,” Muhammad continued.
“It was especially only me and Lou, and then we have other training partners. I trained with a few Bantam weights … There was not really a system.
'After I had taken that second loss [to Luque]I had something like that, okay, I have to find other guys to train with.
“I went to Milwaukee, started training with Anthony Pettis and the boys of Roufus Sport.”
From that moment on the game of Belal Muhammad never looked the same and he was leveling in the UFC Welterweight Champion that he is today.