Sounds like Belal Muhammad is prepared to keep his word.
The current UFC welterweight champion was sidelined with a nasty bone infection and forced to withdraw from his very first title defense, a five-round showdown opposite undefeated contender Shavkat Rakhmonov atop the UFC 310 pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (Dec. 7, 2024) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
As a result, the promotion poached fast-rising welterweight prospect Ian Garry from the UFC Tampa fight card and paired him against Rakhmonov. The winner is expected to challenge Muhammad for the 170-pound strap at some point in early 2025, assuming there are no major injuries suffered this weekend in “Sin City.”
“We are officially cleared to start working out again!!!!” Muhammad wrote on Twitter. “These last six weeks I’ve been watching a lot of tape and studying both these guys [Rakhmonov and Garry] and my official unbiased breakdown is that I break both of them.”
The 36 year-old Muhammad (24-3) is undefeated across his last 11 fights and captured the welterweight crown by defeating Leon Edwards atop the UFC 304 fight card back in July. In addition to the Rakhmonov-Garry fight, “Remember the Name” could be faced with a host of other rising contenders, like Joaquin Buckley and Jack Della Maddalena, among others.
For much more on UFC 310 click here.
