It’s been a few days since the Welterweight scrap between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad ended in a no contest (NC) after “Rocky” accidentally poked “Remember The Name” in his left eye leaving him unable to continue.
While some of the dust has settled, Muhammad is still hot and bothered. Sure, he escaped major injury, but what is rubbing him the wrong way is the fact that Edwards has stated he has no interest in running it back. And while Muhammad admits he had no ill will towards his foe prior to that fight, that’s all changed.
“I had no ill will against him before then, but I do now,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “Just his whole attitude and the way he’s acting. I’m a hard guy to get mad, but he irritated me and he’s pissing me off with just the way he’s acting and the way he’s like, ‘I won the first round, so we knew how the fight’s going to go.’
“There’s five rounds in a fight, you moron. I literally pick up as the fight goes on, so the fact that he’s talking like that, that’s what’s pissing me off the most.”
Muhammad’s initial thoughts after suffering the eye poke was that he had gone blind since he couldn’t see anything but darkness. After that scare wore off, “Remember The Name” says his feelings shifted to anger since there was no clear cut winner. Which is why Muhammad feels Edwards shouldn’t be acting like that.
“Man-to-man, if you’re happy with that result, then you shouldn’t call yourself a fighter,” Muhammad said. “You shouldn’t call yourself a contender. You shouldn’t call yourself a champion. Man-to-man, if you’re happy with that result, honestly you should just hang up your gloves,” he added.
Edwards initially called for a title shot against Kamaru Usman instead of a Muhammad do-over. But now that Jorge Masvidal gets the chance to rematch “The Nigerian Nightmare” at UFC 261, Belal says the door is wide open to a rematch.
“No real fighter, no true fighter would want a fight to end like that. No true fighter would let that happen. You committed the foul. You owe me the rematch. Let’s do it.”
Are you interested?