Belal Muhammad says an interim title fight at #UFC310 doesn’t make sense, but doesn’t mind it:
“Interim title bro? It’s 6 weeks, not 6 months that I’m off.”
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— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 2, 2024
Belal Muhammad believes an interim title fight doesn’t make sense in his absence.
Muhammad was scheduled to defend his welterweight strap against Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, “Remember the Name” was forced out of the event due to an infection in his foot that caused severe swelling in one of his toes.
Rakhmonov has since been looking for a replacement opponent for a potential interim title fight at UFC 310. While Ian Garry had been calling out Rakhmonov, the Irishman was recently booked against Joaquin Buckley for a headlining bout at UFC Tampa on Dec. 14. That leaves former champ Kamaru Usman as the most likely replacement for Muhammad against “Nomad.” Muhammad believes his absence won’t be long enough to warrant an interim title fight. Regardless, the champ claims to be unbothered about an interim title aside from knowing who he’ll fight next.
“[Shavkat’s] calling for an interim title fight. And it’s like, ‘Interim title fight? Bro it’s six weeks, not six months that I’m off.’ But even for myself, they want to just do that just to make it a main event,” Muhammad said on his “Remember the Show” podcast. “I mean I don’t really care about it if they want to make an interim title fight regardless. Because they know who has the real belt. For me, I know who next opponent’s gonna be. If it ends up being him and the only person that really makes sense right now would be Kamaru, since Buckley and Garry are out. And you said I think JDM’s [Jack Della Maddalena] injured… Him and Usman are training partners… it’s just weird.”
Muhammad is undefeated in 11 UFC outings since 2019, topped off by a dominant unanimous decision title win over Leon Edwards at UFC 304 this past July. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Rakhmonov has finished all 18 of his career wins so far, which includes six in the UFC.
