Welterweight champion [autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag] is even more confident after watching Shavkat Rakhmonov fight at UFC 310.
Muhammad was front row for Saturday’s co-main event at T-Mobile Arena between [autotag]Shavkat Rakhmonov[/autotag] (16-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and Ian Machado Garry (15-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC). Rakhmonov survived a late surge from Machado Garry to win a five-round unanimous decision.
Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) was confident that he’d beat either fighter before the fight took place. After Rakhmonov failed to finish for the first time in his career, he likes his chances even more.
“The only thing I saw is that I win. Regardless of when it is, that’s how it’s going to be,” Muhammad told ESPN. “I knew that I was going to be able to beat both of them, whoever came out on top. But after watching it, getting another five rounds of seeing it, now I know it’s going to be a fight for me that I’m going to walk through.”
Muhammad showed off his grappling and striking to dethrone Leon Edwards at UFC 304 in July. He sees himself having the advantage over Rakhmonov wherever the fight goes.
“I think I’m a better striker. I think I’m better everywhere,” Muhammad said. “People will sit there and call me a grappler, but in the Leon fight, I out-struck him. He was supposed to be the best striker in the division, and then I walked him down and broke him on the feet and on the ground. I had 100 more strikes than him.
“So people could say what they want to say, but I think I am the best striker in the division and, the way that I fight, it’s different than the rest of these guys. It’s hard for these guys to catch reads on me and figure me out until you see me in front of you, and then when you see me in front of you, it’s already too late because I’m hitting you.”
Muhammad was surprised with the lack of activity during Rakhmonov and Machado Garry’s clinches. He vows to make Rakhmonov work if they get stuck in those positions.
“I wouldn’t have given him those times to rest, right?” Muhammad said. “There’s times when he’s resting on the cage, holding him (Garry), they’re holding over-under. You’re getting the ref having to tell you to work, work, work. There won’t be that moment with me. I’m going to be the one with the foot on the gas.
“I’m going to be the one pushing him on the fence, taking him down, letting him back up, taking him down, letting him back up. If you’ve never felt that before, you’re going to be drowning. It’s going to feel like there’s nowhere to go. It’s going to feel like you’re in quicksand. And the same way Leon felt it, and he broke, it’s going to be the same thing with Shavkat.”
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