Belal Muhammed is determined to secure his name as one of the best to ever do it, following his UFC title win at UFC 304.
On Saturday night (July 27), Muhammad was crowned the new UFC Welterweight champion when he flew into enemy territory and dominated Leon Edwards over their 5 round main event, to claim the 170lbs title.
Speaking to the media post-fight, the 36-year-old discussed his victory and admitted that as incredible it was to win the belt, he was happy to be able to close the Edwards chapter, after waiting 3 years for the chance to run it back with the Birmingham man. He said:
“I think I'm the best fighter in the world. I know I'm the best fighter in the world. I just had to prove it and I had to show you guys. We had three years to sit there and I had to sit there and dwell on that thing. That last fight of everybody saying, 'Oh, he would have beat him.'
“He would have won the other rounds. He would’ve done this, he would’ve done that.' We didn’t even get started that fight. This fight we got started is this what we did, we just dominated the champion. We made it look easy and we did it better than Colby did, better than Usman did and they're national champ wrestlers.”
In terms of future goals, Muhammad wants to build a legacy not only for himself, but to keep proving those that doubt him, wrong.
“I want to be considered the best Welterweight to ever do it. People laughed at it when I said it the other day and they're like, ‘Oh he’s comparing himself to GSP. Ha Ha, what an idiot. But now look where I am. Look at the guys I have my resume. Leon beat Usman twice and Usman was right underneath GSP. I beat Wonderboy, Gilbert Burns, Luque, Damian Maia, all these guys are huge names.
“People are going to keep disrespecting me, but we just keep winning.”
When asked what he believes it will take in order to be considered as anywhere near as in the same vein as GSP, ‘Remember The Name’ believes defeating not only the generation in which he has came up with, but also the newer names in the division, should cement his name as one of the greats. He said:
“I think beating this next generation of guys, right? You have Shavkat, you have Ian Garry, you have JDM. So there's these young up and comers that everybody's saying are killers, they're probably still saying these guys are going to kill me next, right? So if I go out there and I walk through all these guys and then I beat the old generation; I just want to be the guy that did everything that you said I couldn't do.
“And then if you go up, if what's his name, Dricus still has the title and he beats Adesanya. He was trying to talk tough to me, I’ll go smack him around."
You can watch the full interview, below:
