Belal Muhammad has mentioned two likely first-title challengers to his Welterweight throne.
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) 170-pound titleholder has two very different types of contenders circulating in the mix to fight him next. On one hand, there’s the undefeated 18-0 rising star, Shavkat Rakhmonov. On the other, there’s the former champion, Kamaru Usman, who Muhammad has bantered back and forth with since he won the title at UFC 304 last month (July 27, 2024).
On a surface level, this looks like a no-brainer choice for the promotion to go with as Usman is currently on a three-fight losing streak that dates back to August 2022. When assessing the current landscape, former Bellator and ONE Championship champion, Ben Askren, believes it’s obvious why Muhammad has any interest at all in the “Nigerian Nightmare.”
“Usman has a big name, he’s a former champion, one of the longest-reigning former champions. It’s him, Tyron [Woodley], and Georges [St-Pierre] are the three longer reigning Welterweight champions,” Askren told Daniel Cormier. “Leon [Edwards] is gonna have to win a few more to get in that category, so one of the ways that Belal can see it is: This is a guy who has a big name, who held the belt for a while and now he’s over the hill so he could be an easier opponent for me.
“Maybe potentially he’s looking at that fight vs. a Shavkat, he’s gonna be well known but he’s not huge yet,” he continued. “Or [Jack] Della Maddalena is but he’s not huge yet, right? I would say he’s (Usman) likely over the hill.”
Should Muhammad draw Usman as his first title challenger, the bout would be Usman’s first and likely only in 2024. Usman last fought when he made his Middleweight debut against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in October 2023.