UFC Vegas 45: Belal Muhammad Says It Feels Great To Fight On The Same Card As Gerald Meerschaert

Las Vegas, NV — Entering one of the biggest fights of Belal Muhammad’s UFC career to date, the welterweight is happy to be sharing the card with his teammate Gerald Meerschaert.

After starting his year with heartbreak, Muhammad (19-3-1) ends the year fighting the No. 5 ranked welterweight in the UFC, Stephen Thompson, at UFC Vegas 45. It will be four fights for Muhammad in 2021 as of Saturday, the most since his rookie year in 2016.

With a win over Thompson, “Remember the name” says it puts him in line for a title shot.

“The only guys that have beaten him in the last, whatever years, is either the champion or Gilbert Burns, who has fought for the title. [Thompson] has fought for the title twice. So if he has fought for the title twice, and I just beat Maia, who fought for the title twice, Bully B needs to fight for the title once,” Muhammad said during Wednesday’s UFC Vegas 45 media day.

Muhammad’s long-time teammate Meerscharet headlines the prelims, and Belal is happy that he gets to share the card with him.

“It feels great to have a teammate like that, who has taught me so much. A lot of guys don’t know how good he really is and how good of a coach he really is. I was able to go down there a couple of times to train and work with him. Now that he is on the right track, where he just beat a crazy prospect, he is about to get on a three-fight win streak— comeback fighter of the year, honestly. He’s starting to get the respect that he deserves, and people don’t realize it,” Muhammad told Cageside Press.

“Having guys like that, you know, I’ve been with Louis Taylor, who never got the respect he deserves, and then all of a sudden, he won the PFL middleweight championship when there were years when he thought he was done. People are now realizing that the people I train with, the circle I got around me, they are all monsters; they are all beasts. The world is starting to see it.”

Watch the rest of Belal Muhammad’s UFC Vegas 45 media day interview above. More coverage of the event, which takes place this Saturday, December 18, 2021 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV, can be found below.