Brendan Allen watched on at UFC 304 as his long time friend Belal Muhammad finally got his shot at the welterweight title.
The middleweight contender was incredibly happy to see the challenger get his hand raised and hear "and new", after beating Leon Edwards over five rounds in Manchester.
Allen, who is preparing for a big co-main event clash in Paris with Nassourdine Imavov, was able to take motivation from this as he also seeks his first title shot.
The #7-ranked contender sees his friend keeping hold of the belt at 170-pounds as long as he's able to lock down the mental aspects of being a champion.
Muhammad is now set to go from hunter to hunted after chasing the welterweight title for such a long time.
While this means he won't be needing to call opponents out in order to climb the ladder anymore, it does mean shifting his mentality now that he has achieved his goal.
The welterweight division isn't short on dangerous challengers either, with the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov likely being the next man in line.
During an interview with MMA News, Allen spoke about whether he believes his friend will be able to establish a long reign as champion by continuing his win streak.
He said that due to knowing Muhammad well, he believes he certainly has the skills and confidence to do so but the key is staying just as motivated and hungry as he was on the way up the mountain.
I do, I think it's as long as he wants it you know. As long as he's motivated and hungry, I think he can hold it as long as he wants just because he has the skill. It's just. I haven't personally been in the situation of obviously being a champion yet at that level but they say there's a lot of switches that need to be flipped in the way that you translate your thinking in order to find a different motivation and hunger. So, I think as long as he does that and continues to want it, I think he'll be just fine. He has such a strong fight IQ, he's good everywhere, he knows what to do and when to do it. So yeah, I really think he can.
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