Belal Muhammad recently detailed a part of camp that was a game changer in his title fight with Leon Edwards.
Muhammad got his title shot against Edwards in the main event at UFC 304 in Manchester, England, this past July. “Remember the Name” put on a dominant display, completely outclassing Edwards in almost all aspects to earn a unanimous decision win.
A big part of Muhammad’s win had to do with his consistent forward pressure against Edwards, who is known for his ability to control range. And the new champ revealed that it did not come to him easily. Muhammad claims to have taken thousands of body kicks while constantly moving forward during sparring in preparation for the Edwards matchup. If he failed to do so, his coaches were always quick to remind him, making him reach a point where moving forward just became a mantra.
“Especially because Leon’s so good at lateral movement… So for me I was like, I can’t be in kicking range at all,” Muhammad said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “I think I felt one body kick early and I was like, ‘All right let me step forward on it.’ So even with my mindset the whole camp, I probably took 2,000 to 3,000 body kicks and then moved forward on each of them. And if I backed up at all, my coaches yelled at me, ‘Look what you did here, you did this wrong, move forward, move forward. We can’t take one step back.’ I was writing it down, I was putting it in my head, ‘Do not take a step back, do not take a step back.’ And then it just came out in the fight.”
Belal Muhammad talks about his preparation to Leon Edwards fight.
“I took probably about 2-3 thousand kicks and moved forward on each of them. If I backed up at all my coach [was] yelling at me… I was putting it in my head to not take a step back.”
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Muhammad has already expressed interest in moving up middleweight after a couple of title defenses, citing a lack of fresh blood at welterweight. While undefeated contender Shavkat Rakhmonov is confident that he challenges Muhammad next, the champ wants the Kazakh to fight former champ Kamaru Usman in a title eliminator.
