Belal Muhammad is confident he can beat Darren Till on the feet.
Muhammad dethroned Till’s fellow countryman, Leon Edwards, via a dominant unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 304 in Manchester this past July. From his experience fighting “Rocky,” Muhammad has arrived at the conclusion that Englishmen aren’t good at striking.
This led him to challenge Till, who is primarily a striker, to a stand-up sparring match. Ready to put his money where his mouth his, “Remember the Name” offered a wager of $100,000 for the potential spar, which would be live streamed. Muhammad even more boldly offered to go southpaw against “The Gorilla” for five rounds.
“I realized after going with Leon that people in the U.K. don’t have striking, you guys aren’t good at it,” Muhammad said on X Spaces. “I’ll put $100,000 that I’ll beat you in a five-round sparring match. We’ll just do stand up sparring; we’ll go live stream it… I won’t even wrestle and I will go southpaw against you… Oh, man I can’t wait to spar you.”
Till accepted Muhammad’s challenge, refusing to believe the champ can get the better of him in striking. While Till admits he can’t outwrestle Muhammad, the Liverpudlian believes he shouldn’t have a problem poking the Chicago native from distance in striking.
“Okay, let’s go then, it’s done… You can’t stand up with me Belal,” Till said. “Just like I know that you’ve got your little wrestlers, I can’t wrestle with you, you can’t strike with me… All jokes aside, I swear to God, all jokes aside, you are a great champion but striking, you see me with you – my little finger, poke poke poke you, so s—t. What are you gonna do?”
Muhammad is currently on an 11-fight unbeaten run that has seen him best many of the top contenders in the welterweight division. Meanwhile, Till was released from the UFC on his own request in February 2023 on the back of a three-fight skid. Till, whose last win was in 2019, has vowed to return to the UFC after pursuing boxing aspirations.
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