UFC Welterweight Champion Belal Muhammad is eyeing a potential clash with Sean Strickland to settle their long-standing feud and hold the middleweight accountable for his controversial remarks.
The two fighters have exchanged heated words, with Muhammad taking particular issue with Strickland’s openly Islamophobic comments. For “Remember the Name,” these remarks represent a sign of weakness that he is eager to exploit in the Octagon.
Before any potential bout with Muhammad, Strickland is set to face middleweight champ Dricus Du Plessis in a rematch. The fight headlines UFC 312 on February 8 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
In a candid interview with Submission Radio, Muhammad didn’t hold back in his assessment of the upcoming challenger in the weight class above him.
“I hope he loses, and I hope he gets knocked out and put unconscious and doesn’t wake up,” he said. “But regardless, I would always still want to move up and fight him whether he has the belt or not. That will always be a fight I say yes to. It’s personal.
“The guy’s just an airhead. He’s literally the definition of trailer trash. That’s what he is. So when he says all this dumb stuff, people need to make him pay for it. The Twitter people are happy to see it, and he knows it because he can’t get attention other than saying dumb things.”
Muhammad went on to compare Strickland’s behavior to that of fellow UFC fighter Colby Covington.
“He has to say stupid, wild stuff because nobody cares about him without it. It’s kind of like Colby Covington. Nobody cared about him before he started saying dumb stuff. Strickland is trying to level it up even more so he could have that wow factor because his fights suck. He always talks about, ‘I’m going to kill this guy. We’re going to go to war,’ and it’s literally just a teep fest. I think he knows that he sucks, so that’s why he goes out there and he says this dumb stuff.”
Meanwhile, Muhammad is preparing for his first title defense, which is expected to be against rising star Shavkat Rakhmonov. While the fight has not been officially confirmed, Muhammad’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, has hinted that it could take place in May.
