Belal Muhammad believes the possibility of moving up to middleweight to chase a second title is not far off.
Muhammad came into the welterweight title fight against Leon Edwards at UFC 304 with a 10-fight unbeaten record. “Remember the Name” dominated Edwards over five rounds in front of Edwards’ hometown crowd in Manchester, winning by unanimous decision.
Muhammad has already discussed moving up to middleweight in the future to become a two-division champion, and he believes two more title defenses will get him there.
The Chicago native maintains that neither Kamaru Usman nor Shavkat Rahmonov, who he will face in his first title defense, are the clear No. 1 contenders. Muhammad points out that Edwards was the obvious title challenger when he fought him for the title. Muhammad had already defeated several top 10 contenders by the time he entered the title fray, and he believes there isn’t much left for him to do at 170 pounds, so he is considering moving up a weight class.
“I’ve already beat a lot of top contenders. You could say Shafqat is the runner-up, but does he really deserve to be runner-up? Does Usman really deserve to be runner-up? When you think about it, there’s no clear number one contender,” Muhammad told Grind City Media. “When Leon won, I was the clear number one contender. I beat this guy, this guy, this guy. I’m like, OK, he won.
[Stephen] “Wonder Boy” [Thompson]and after “Wonder Boy,” I beat like four guys.
“There’s no one that I think, ‘Oh, he beat the No. 1 contender.’ No one has beaten the No. 1 contender the way I beat the No. 1 contender. [Vicente] “Luque was on a seven-fight win streak. He was on a two-fight win streak when I beat Gilbert Burns. He was the No. 1 contender. He was right up there. Shawn Brady was 15-0 when I beat him. All of these guys had big wins, big wins, but for me, I’ve only had two fights maybe, but I’ve already beaten every top 10 guy, so I can talk about double champion status.”
