Belal Muhammad is confident he can beat Darren Till in the stands.
Muhammad defeated Till’s countryman Leon Edwards by overwhelming unanimous decision to take the title in the main event of UFC 304 in Manchester in July. His experience fighting “Rocky” led Muhammad to conclude that the Brit just wasn’t good at striking.
This prompted him to challenge Till, primarily a striker, to a stand-up sparring match. Ready to put his money where his mouth is, “Remember the Name” offered $100,000 for the live-streamed sparring match. Muhammad went even more daring, offering to fight “The Gorilla” for five rounds in a southpaw style.
“Fighting Leon, I learned that British fighters are bad at striking. You guys are bad at striking,” Muhammad said on X-Space. “I bet you $100,000 I can beat you in five rounds of sparring. We’ll just do stand-up sparring. It’ll be live streamed… I’ll be fighting southpaw, no wrestling… Oh man, I can’t wait to spar with you.”
Till accepted Muhammad’s challenge but didn’t believe the champion could beat him with a strikeout. While Till acknowledges he can’t beat Muhammad, he believes the Liverpool native should have no problem hitting the Chicago native from a distance.
“Okay, here we go, this is it…Belal, you can’t fight me,” Till said, “I know you’ve got your little wrestlers, but I can’t wrestle you, you can’t hit me…Jokes aside, I swear, jokes aside, you’re a great champion, but I’ll hit you, if I see me with you…my pinky will poke you, so damn, what are you gonna do?”
Muhammad is currently 11-0 with wins over many of the top contenders in the welterweight division, while Till lost three straight fights before being released by UFC at his own request in February 2023. After his last win in 2019, Till has vowed to return to UFC to pursue his boxing dreams.
