UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad and middleweight champ Dricus du Plessis have very different impressions about how a fight between them plays out.
There is a growing appetite to see UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev challenge for the welterweight crown, currently in Muhammad’s possession. When asked by Barstool Chicago, Muhammad turned down a potential fight against his training partner. Muhammad suggested that he and Makhachev could instead move up simultaneously in pursuit of champ-champ status.
“For me, I’d rather go to 185 and let [Makhachev] just take 170,” Muhammad said. “Since I’ve already had to fight my way up to 170, I’ve beaten five top-10 guys, I’m two fights away from being able to challenge for [the middleweight title] and saying, ‘Hey, I want to be double champ.'”
Muhammad argued that the middleweight division lacks difficult challenges, excluding top contender Khamzat Chimaev. The welterweight champ dispariged UFC 313’s main event title fight between Du Plessis and Sean Strickland as a prime example of the weight class’ shallowness.
“I think 185 is probably the easiest weight class, besides Khamzat,” Muhammad said. “When you look at that [UFC 312] main event, you’re like, ‘Bro, Strickland and du Plessis suck.'”
Du Plessis scoffed at a potential Muhammad fight. The middleweight champion brushed off Muhammad as physically inadequate for the 185-pound weight class.
“No, that would be unfair,” du Plessis told “The Ariel Helwani Show” on Tuesday. “If I fight Belal Muhammad, it would be unfair. One hundred percent, have you seen the size of the man? What is he going to do? Is he going to get somebody to help him? Is he going to sit on somebody’s neck? How is it going to work? He’s the smallest—I couldn’t believe that he’s at 170 when I saw him. I couldn’t believe that he fights at 170.
“I step on his head and it’s over. That’s how that fight goes.”
Du Plessis also questioned UFC’s interest in the fight. Du Plessis claimed Muhammad doesn’t garner enough fan interest to appeal to anyone.
“Belal Muhammad, I can’t even remember the way he fights, I don’t know,” du Plessis said. “Has he ever finished anyone?… I mean, I like how he acts as if he has a choice to ever go up to 185. The UFC will never let him. If he wanted to, he’d have to abandon his belt, give up his belt, vacate, and go up to 185, and there’s no way they give him a direct title shot. There’s no way. The UFC doesn’t even like Belal Muhammad.”
“He hasn’t even defended his belt once. He’s definitely better on Twitter than he is when he fights.”
