Manchester — Welterweight Belal Muhammad has been waiting a long time for his title shot, which finally arrives on Saturday at UFC 304.
Muhammad (23-3, 1NC) sits on a nine-fight win streak, with a No Contest (accidental eye poke) against current champ Leon Edwards in the mix. Many pointed to Muhammad as the next contender two years ago, but for various reasons — perhaps his lack of flash and pinazz among them — the shot never came. Until now.
“I’ve been starving for this day, I’ve been waiting for this day forever,” Muhammad told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day. “And just in general, I just love to fight. I’ve been in the practice room, I’ve been training for a full year, waiting waiting, waiting. And once we finally got the date, it was locked in. Then camp went by so fast, it was one of the hardest camps we’ve had, and now it’s fight week. We made it here, we’re healthy, we’re in Manchester, and Saturday night’s going to be epic.”
Muhammad has had his focus on Leon Edwards for the last year and a half to two years. Consistently, he’s talked of a five-round performance, rather than knocking his opponent out or otherwise finishing him.
That, explained Muhammad, is “because I want to torture him. I want him to realize how much better I am than him. When you go out there, you get a finish, people say ‘oh you got lucky, you did this, it happened because of that.'”
“But if I go out there and dominate him, beat him in all aspects of MMA— wrestling, grappling, striking, jiu-jitsu, get him the the point of making him want to quit. I want to torture him, I want him to the point of looking at his coaches, and his coaches have nothing to say and they walk away because they’re embarrassed— That’s what I want him to feel like on Saturday night.”
Asked whether he might be getting under the champ’s skin, Muhammad suggested that wasn’t the point. “I don’t care about getting under his skin. I care about getting through his skin.”
Watch the full UFC 304 media day appearance by Belal Muhammad above.
