Belal Muhammad makes a good argument.

[Deleted member 504083]

Fuck off with such pathetic cope

 

[mangokush]

The UFC will never let never give Belal a title shot due to politics

Doesn't matter who he beats at this point, all his wins will be discredited

 

[Dyson350]

Who???

 

[IBeLurkin]

TJ fought and lost his belt in a VERY closely contested fight to Dom.

What happened after that?
Cruz 'defended' against 1 fight win streak, 37-year old Faber; while TJ fought 7 fight win streak, was already promised multiple title shots, perrenial #1 contender Assuncao.
Cruz then continued his dumb "TAM" feud by taking on #6 ranked, best win is Thomas Almeida, Cody Garbrandt; while TJ fought #2 ranked, surging contender John Lineker.

Sometimes, champions have storylines and challengers are doing the grunt work of the division. Like if Usman has to do 2 completely undeserved rematches, and then maybe gets one himself, while another guy has to beat 3 top-5 opponents and still not get a title shot for it.

Having given you that to process, I'll reference another post I've made on the subject.


We often judge champs by number of defenses, but that's probably not too fair, because you usually become a contender in the first place by beating ranked guys. So by the time you win the belt and become champ, you'll already have some section of the rankings already beaten. (Of course, the rankings are always moving, so you can compile a bunch of wins, but how many stay current shows how fewer challengers you have right now in front of you)

Now, I don't think Belal beats Usman and Leon in his next two fights. I figure the likelihood is extremely low. BUT I also thought he was gonna lose nearly every fight he's had since Leon, and that's not happened yet. So let's take a look at the ranked wins Belal would have if he does become champ, compared to the current ranked wins of all the champs.

Heavyweight - Jon Jones
1 ranked win (special case, straight to the shot)

Light HW - Let's say both Jiri and Hill to be fair
Jiri - 2 Hill - 1

Middleweight - Strickland
4 ranked wins

Welterweight - Edwards
2 ranked wins (3 if you count RDA, who is ranked at LW, even though he's been WW his last 2 fights)

Lightweight - Islam
3 ranked wins (4 including Volk)

Featherweight - Volkanovski
3 ranked wins (But Zombie only recently retired)

Bantamweight - Sugar Mallet
2 ranked wins

Flyweight - Pantoja
5 ranked wins

Women's FW - Grasso
3 ranked wins

Women's Straw - Zhang
3 ranked wins (But probably should be 4 with Tecia if she wasn't unranked for coming down with that common injury we call "a baby")

If Belal makes his way to champ, he will have:
6 ranked wins

Meaning, he'd basically have already gotten a stronger hold over his own division than every champ today.
~~~~

So, feel free to question whether or not I'm b8'ing, but I'll tell ya this: You might think it's wrong, but my "b8'ing" feels so right.


By Colby-fan logic, Luque was the backup on Usman-Covington 2, and so was provably the next contender when Belal beat him.


Coulda fooled me. They get some of the most undue hate around here

Nice post and all, but Belal isn't defending shit, and you know that as well as I.

Belal was getting destroyed by Leon before lucking out with the No Contest. He's not a champ, he's a decent top 5 guy who can beat some other top 10 guys in extremely boring ways.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Nice post and all, but Belal isn't defending shit, and you know that as well as I.

Belal was getting destroyed by Leon before lucking out with the No Contest. He's not a champ, he's a decent top 5 guy who can beat some other top 10 guys in extremely boring ways.

He's defended his spot as the top contender repeatedly, as opposed to the one or zero times that a top contender needs to, since they usually get a title shot by that point.

Explain how, in a round he was fouled, in a single round of a five round fight, and a round that .. zero? play by plays scored as a 10-8 for Leon show that he was "getting destroyed."

Also, what a useless qualifier, calling them boring wins, as if that doesn't make them wins. As if there aren't examples of long time champs who get heralded for their greatness who weren't consistently called "boring." Guess what, I don't give a shit what you enjoy. I enjoy MMA. And in MMA contests, he has more ranked wins than a lot of contenders ever gather in a career and put them all in a single streak. And I thought he was going to lose every single one, because I too think he's a decent top 5 guy, but he still doesn't lose.

 

[maximus__]

But, if I have Usman on my resume, Gilbert Burns, ‘Wonderboy,’ Luque, undefeated Sean Brady, which I think will pay dividends once Sean Brady comes back and fights, I’m going to be considered the GOAT of the welterweights without even fighting for the belt”.

as quoted by MMAJunkie
Not a huge fan but he makes some good points

Burns was injured and Belal still caused no damage.Wonderboy was getting hit so softly he just stopped defending Belal's punches and hit him back forcing Belal to move. He is 1-1 with Luque and Brady is so hot and cold, you can't really say what he is yet.

He deserves the shot over Colby, but he is crazy to be saying stuff like this.

 

[maximus__]

He may be the best fighter no one cares about or wants to see.

Best wrestler would be more appropriate. He isn't fighting. He is doing enough to not get stood up in MMA.

If he would commit to his shots more, I would favour him over Colby and Usman at this point though.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

But, if I have Usman on my resume, Gilbert Burns, ‘Wonderboy,’ Luque, undefeated Sean Brady, which I think will pay dividends once Sean Brady comes back and fights, I’m going to be considered the GOAT of the welterweights without even fighting for the belt”.

as quoted by MMAJunkie
Not a huge fan but he makes some good points

Champion money? WW goat? <Lmaoo><Lmaoo><Lmaoo>

Not sure wtf he's smoking but we all need some of that.thanks for the LOLs. Muhammad is boring AF....! Good to know he's a comedian too. He should drop jokes post fight. He will be more likeable. Even more funny? He believes this crap

 

[chimpoehurricane]

WTF are you talking about, I’m the goat with zero titles and defences. This is the WW GOAT the one and only View attachment 1005307

I don't disagree but GSP got beat to death by Hendricks and thrn he ducked the rematch plus fled thr sport. As bad as that, he got ktfo by Sera and instead of going out on his shield, he tapped to strikes. Career long ducked Silva only to fight mw Bisping with a glass eye.

The 1st dominant WW champ with consecutive wins and heart will eat his food.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

If Belal keeps winning then history will look at him fondly. I think a belt will be in his future tho.

 

[PavlovsCat]

They definitely belong in the same sentence, but not for the reasons you think.

I think he meant he deserves to be inside a goat. Baaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

 

[HHJ]

I mean all the things he is saying works in his favor,but to think hes a goat off that is crazy! but he might just be talkin shit to get attention,so good on him if thats the case. If not,its still cool,even if its false...sometimes u gotta believe these things to stay in the headspace when the company keeps denying you the title shot cos they afraid of remembering the name.

 

[IBeLurkin]

He's defended his spot as the top contender repeatedly, as opposed to the one or zero times that a top contender needs to, since they usually get a title shot by that point.

Explain how, in a round he was fouled, in a single round of a five round fight, and a round that .. zero? play by plays scored as a 10-8 for Leon show that he was "getting destroyed."

Also, what a useless qualifier, calling them boring wins, as if that doesn't make them wins. As if there aren't examples of long time champs who get heralded for their greatness who weren't consistently called "boring." Guess what, I don't give a shit what you enjoy. I enjoy MMA. And in MMA contests, he has more ranked wins than a lot of contenders ever gather in a career and put them all in a single streak. And I thought he was going to lose every single one, because I too think he's a decent top 5 guy, but he still doesn't lose.

Again, it's nice you think this way. It doesn't change the fact that Belal isn't defending anything besides a ranking, and he's not and never has been champ.

Belal is a good top 5 guy. He's beating other top 10 guys, which is great. If he does this for another year or two, we can compare him to Fitch.

But looking at Belal's career with full context, it's ridiculous to act like he's on the same level as a champ.

 

[Wonderfight]

Don’t want to be disrespectful, but he is not that impressive. Brady had know problems witch cardio and was in big trouble against people like Chiesa (not a bas fighter, but you know…), Luque is on a downward slope and has not looked good for a good number of fights (scraped by Dos Anjos only because of size difference). Burns fought him literally torn in more than one place for 5 rounds and Belal was still unable to impose himself in that fight. Wonderboy is a phenomenal striker, but he is a 40 year old man who is definitely past his prime for some time already.

This is not trying to find something wrong in every win, but there is a undeniable fact that none of those are impressive as Belal makes them out to be. Context matters.