{"id":200715,"date":"2021-03-12T19:26:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/belal-muhammad-is-making-it-impossible-for-ufc-fans-to-forget-the-name\/"},"modified":"2021-03-12T19:26:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T16:26:39","slug":"belal-muhammad-is-making-it-impossible-for-ufc-fans-to-forget-the-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belal-muhammad-is-making-it-impossible-for-ufc-fans-to-forget-the-name\/","title":{"rendered":"#Belal Muhammad is making it impossible for UFC fans to forget \u2018the name\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Belal Muhammad is making it impossible for UFC fans to forget \u2018the name\u2019<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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In mixed martial arts, nicknames can be the perfect succinct way to get a message across to fans and opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Want fans to know that in-cage violence is coming? Go by \u201cThe Natural Born Killer.\u201d Need something short and sweet but still unique? It worked with \u201cRampage\u201d and \u201cShogun.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Belal Muhammad. He just makes a simple request whenever Bruce Buffer belts out his nickname in the octagon in the moments before he goes to war: \u201cRemember the Name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I started out in amateur [MMA], it was hard for people to remember my name,\u201d Muhammad, who will face Leon Edwards in Saturday\u2019s UFC Fight Night welterweight headliner on ESPN+, told The Post on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was like, I want to have the fighting style and the personality where people remember the name, where they\u2019re not gonna forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhammad (18-3, five finishes) is making it easier for fight fans to keep his name in mind with every outing. After a 1-2 start to his UFC career in 2016, he\u2019s won eight of his past nine and finds himself in his first main event for the promotion. He arrived in Las Vegas for the bout at UFC Apex having won four in a row, including a unanimous victory over Dhiego Lima exactly four weeks earlier, the fastest turnaround of his career.<\/p>\n

Calling the opportunity to have his name on the marquee something he\u2019d \u201calways envisioned,\u201d the 32-year-old Muhammad wants combat sports fans to know that he\u2019s got a fighter\u2019s mentality, regardless of how long he had to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get that credit for being one of those guys that steps up, one of those guys that\u2019s willing to fight anytime, anyplace, anywhere,\u201d Muhammad said. \u201cAnd I just want to show the fan base that I\u2019m that guy. I\u2019m that guy who\u2019s going to be ready, that guy who\u2019s always ready to fight and willing to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Belal
Belal Muhammad during his victory over Dhiego Lima on February 13, 2021<\/figcaption>
Zuffa LLC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a sport in which few bat an eyelash at big weight cuts, not all fighters can take advantage of the short-notice opportunity that presented itself to Muhammad \u2014 taking on a fighter in Edwards (18-3, nine finishes) who\u2019s on the short list of potential next title challengers. But when Edwards\u2019 original matchup with Khamzat Chimaev was scrapp<\/a>ed amid the fast-rising prospect\u2019s struggles recovering from COVID-19, Muhammad leapt at the opportunity with gusto.<\/p>\n

Usually one to indulge in fast-food favorites he\u2019d deprived himself of while training for a fight, the Edwards bout came to Muhammad at the perfect time, just three days after defeating Lima.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting there looking at myself in the mirror like, \u2018What are you doing to yourself?\u2019 \u201d Muhammad said. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden, I got the call to fight, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Ah, perfect! Something to look forward to again.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m always looking ahead. I\u2019m not gonna sit there and dwell on a win for awhile. \u2026 I\u2019m always hungry. I\u2019m addicted to winning, so I always want to have that feeling. There\u2019s no feeling like winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhammad\u2019s run of success is impressive, but it\u2019s still not quite the wave which Edwards rides into Vegas. He\u2019s won eight in a row and 10 of 11, with the lone loss coming by decision against future 170-pound champ Kamaru Usman \u2014 who made his third consecutive title defense on Feb. 13, the night Muhammad last competed. Edwards, 30, is coming off a five-round decision victory over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in July 2019 \u2014 a roughly 20-month layoff.<\/p>\n

And yet, Muhammad isn\u2019t overly impressed with the tools Edwards, who hails from Birmingham, England by way of Jamaica. While calling Edwards \u201ca good fighter\u201d who is \u201cpretty good everywhere\u201d and acknowledging his opponent\u2019s lengthy winning streak, the Chicago native couldn\u2019t point to any one facet of his opponent\u2019s game<\/a> that keeps him awake at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really nothing extraordinary about him where it\u2019s like, \u2018Man, he has amazing jiu-jitsu, or he has amazing striking, he has Francis Ngannou [level] power,\u2019\u201d Muhammad said. \u201cThere\u2019s really nothing that I fear coming into this fight. There\u2019s nothing that he has that can make me double-think or make me regret taking this fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fight that I feel like I can win, and it\u2019s a fight that I\u2019m gonna win.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Belal Muhammad is making it impossible for UFC fans to forget \u2018the name\u2019” In mixed martial arts, nicknames can be the perfect succinct way to get a message across to fans and opponents.\u00a0 Want fans to know that in-cage violence is coming? Go by \u201cThe Natural Born Killer.\u201d Need something short and sweet but still…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/muhammad2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[97382,71715],"class_list":["post-200715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-12-21","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}