{"id":5762,"date":"2025-04-20T12:37:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T11:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=5762"},"modified":"2025-04-20T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:51:12","slug":"the-fighter-who-thrives-on-doubt-belal-muhammad-rejects-his-new-fans-and-embraces-the-underdog-mentality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/the-fighter-who-thrives-on-doubt-belal-muhammad-rejects-his-new-fans-and-embraces-the-underdog-mentality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fighter Who Thrives on Doubt: Belal Muhammad Rejects His New Fans and Embraces the Underdog Mentality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"2880\" data-end=\"3148\">Despite becoming the welterweight world champion, Belal Muhammad still prefers to be seen as the underdog rather than a fan favorite. The Palestinian-American fighter, known as <em data-start=\"3057\" data-end=\"3076\">Remember the Name<\/em>, continues to walk his own path\u2014even as more fans begin to support him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3150\" data-end=\"3601\">On May 11, 2025, in Montreal, Muhammad will face his biggest challenge yet when he defends his title against Australian Jack Della Maddalena in a highly anticipated bout at UFC 315. Muhammad has not fought since July 2024 due to a foot injury that kept him out of UFC 311, where he was originally scheduled to defend his title against Shavkat Rakhmonov. Although a rematch was planned for UFC 315, Rakhmonov&#8217;s withdrawal opened the door for Maddalena.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3603\" data-end=\"3877\">With eleven straight fights without a loss, Muhammad is technically one of the most skilled fighters on the roster. Yet, paradoxically, he remains one of the least popular\u2014largely due to his methodical and control-oriented fighting style, which some fans find less exciting.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3879\" data-end=\"3920\">&#8220;I don\u2019t want fans. I want doubters.&#8221;<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"3922\" data-end=\"4129\">Though he started with little fanfare, Muhammad has gained more attention since his victory over Leon Edwards. But that attention hasn\u2019t exactly thrilled him. In an interview with <em data-start=\"4102\" data-end=\"4114\">MMA Junkie<\/em>, he explained:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4131\" data-end=\"4291\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"4133\" data-end=\"4291\">&#8220;I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, stay away from me\u2014I don\u2019t want fans.\u2019 I want doubters. I want people telling me I\u2019m going to lose. That\u2019s what motivates me to train harder.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_80934\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C16wISA5-Ko?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4293\" data-end=\"4303\">He adds:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4304\" data-end=\"4462\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"4306\" data-end=\"4462\">&#8220;That\u2019s why I keep a tight circle of teammates who help keep me grounded. There are no easy fights in this sport, no easy wins\u2014no matter what the fans say.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4464\" data-end=\"4546\">Muhammad approaches every fight with the hunger of a man still chasing the belt.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4547\" data-end=\"4701\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"4549\" data-end=\"4701\">&#8220;To me, it\u2019s not about defending the title. It\u2019s about fighting for it again. It took me years to get this belt and the attention\u2014I\u2019m not giving it up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4703\" data-end=\"4742\">Praised by Khabib and Ready for War<\/h3>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4744\" data-end=\"4888\">Even Khabib Nurmagomedov has praised Belal Muhammad\u2019s discipline and dedication. For his part, Muhammad refuses to underestimate any opponent:<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"4889\" data-end=\"5004\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"4891\" data-end=\"5004\">&#8220;In my mind, I\u2019m preparing to face the best striker in the world. I\u2019m training like I\u2019m fighting Canelo Alvarez.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5006\" data-end=\"5171\">With this warrior mindset, Belal Muhammad enters UFC 315 not only to defend his championship, but to prove that legacy is earned through perseverance\u2014not popularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite becoming the welterweight world champion, Belal Muhammad still prefers to be seen as the underdog rather than a fan favorite. The Palestinian-American fighter, known as Remember the Name, continues to walk his own path\u2014even as more fans begin to support him. On May 11, 2025, in Montreal, Muhammad will face his biggest challenge yet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86,21,91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-mma-video","9":"category-ufc-news","10":"category-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5764,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5762\/revisions\/5764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}