Belal Muhammad reflects on warm reception in Chicago after his UFC title win: "It felt great"
Belal Muhammad recently spoke about how his hometown of Chicago welcomed him with open arms following his title win at UFC 304. In the main event of the pay-per-view this July, Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards with a commanding performance in front of the latter's home crowd, winning the welterweight title by unanimous decision.
Muhammad gained more than just the welterweight title after defeating Edwards. 'Remember the Name' became the first fighter of Palestinian descent to become a UFC champion. He was ecstatic to return with the title to his loved ones and was honored to represent Chicago.
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Muhammad was questioned about taking his belt back to Chicago. In response, he said:
''It felt great man to have my own parade. We had a lot of my family there a lot of my friends there, and you know, growing up in Chicago, you had like the Bulls, the Socks, the Cubs, all those parades, and to be able to go to those parades, and now I have my own parade. It was just an amazing experience in general, you know. Chicago hasn't had a champion in a while, so for us to bring the belt back home and get gold in Chicago, it feels good.''
Muhammad also opened up about his performance against Edwards, as the 36-year-old was determined to silence his critics and dispel any uncertainty about who was the real welterweight champion of the UFC:
"I didn't leave no stone unturned. I worked harder than I ever worked for that fight. And to go in there and dominate him in the way I dominated him, when a lot of people around the world never [gave] me a chance. And to prove a lot of people wrong and to prove my coaches and team right, that was the best part."
Check out Belal Muhammad's comments below (0:42):
Belal Muhammad discusses his next opponent
In his post-fight interview after winning the welterweight title at UFC 304, Belal Muhammad mentioned Kamaru Usman and Shavkat Rakhmonov as possible opponents for his first title defense.
However, in the aforementioned interview with Submission Radio, Muhammad dismissed the Usman fight, claiming that facing Rakhmonov is the only reasonable course of action:
''I think it's just be for me if Usman didn't lose to Khamzat, I'd take that fight but... so for me now, it's all right, Shavkat's the boogeyman that they all think is unbeatable... so yeah I think for me it would be another one of those tests that to prove people wrong to shut them up right... so now that's the guy that I'm putting my sights on.'' [16:00]