Welterweight champion Belal Muhammad has been trading some comments with the title’s former holder, Kamaru Usman.
Despite being without a win since his second victory over Colby Covington, “The Nigerian Nightmare” is still very much in the title mix at 170-pounds.
He may have lost back-to-back fights against Leon Edwards and came up short when attempting to beat Khamzat Chimaev up a weight class on late notice, but his prior winning streak in the division speaks for itself.
Muhammad, however, doesn’t have the same kind of respect for the run that Usman went on, mostly because of his conduct when he was the champion.
Belal Muhammad Says Kamaru Usman Picked Opponents During His Welterweight Title Reign
Muhammad always felt that during his own welterweight winning streak, he was being overlooked by the guys at the top who didn’t want to fight him.
He had this issue with Edwards before they met in a rematch at UFC 304 and he has the same problem with Usman.
In an interview with Submission Radio, he spoke about why he doesn’t believe that the former champion deserves another shot at the title without returning to the win column first.
The current titleholder, who appears to be facing Shavkat Rakhmonov next, says that Usman chose to ignore him and other viable contenders like Vicente Luque in order to take bigger money fights against the likes of Jorge Masvidal.
Comparing Usman to other long-reigning champions of this era in Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski, Muhammad believes that he isn’t in the same conversation because he picked opponents instead of fighting the next best guy at all times.
“If you wanted to cement yourself as the best welterweight, you do what Adesanya did or Volkanovski, who’s the next best guy. Who’s the guy that’s right there and he didn’t do that. So for him to say like now he’s calling my name, like oh now you noticed me because I have the target on my back but before you act like you didn’t know who I was. I’ve been chasing you, I’ve been here, I’ve been talking.”
