Belal Muhammad was in the best shape of his life for the most important fight of his life.
“Remember the Name” upset Leon Edwards in the UFC 304 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last weekend in Manchester, a five-round performance that kept “Rocky” on his heels for most of the fight and sent Muhammad home with the 170-pound title.
Former welterweight title challenger, Colby Covington, expects Muhammad to be “one-and-done” as champion.
“I think I think it’s a one-and-done type thing,” Covington told Submission Radio. “You know, he’s obviously on the right steroids right now. He’s doing the right cycles. So you know he had a one night, lightning-in-a-bottle type performance. He’s the supposed paper champ right now, but no one cares, he doesn’t draw flies to sh*t. So it’s not like he’s going to make any money with that belt. He’s going to do as he’s told. And yeah, I think he will be one-and-done.”
There’s early talk of paring Muhammad against No. 3-ranked contender Shavkat Rakhmonov later this year.
“I don’t think anything special of Sh*t Rat,” Covington continued. “I think that the way he fights, he fights very tall, very high up, chin up in the air. He almost got knocked out by the bus boy from Outback that’s serving Blooming Onions, Geoff Neal. He got exposed in that fight and then he fought No. 9 ‘Wonderboy’ last fight. I don’t know how that warrants a title shot. He’s finished a lot of nobodies, some jabronis from the amateur Indian casinos. He hasn’t fought top contenders yet, so I don’t know what to expect for him. There’s a lot of unknowns, but I know that I have the skill set to beat anybody in the world.”
Anybody not named Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards.
Covington, now 36, had three chances to win the welterweight title and failed all three times, so it must be frustrating for “Chaos” to watch a 170-pound rival like Muhammad waltz in and capture the crown.
Covington (17-4) has yet to compete in 2024 and as of this writing, remains unbooked.