{"id":5839,"date":"2025-05-01T17:58:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T16:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=5839"},"modified":"2025-05-01T18:45:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T17:45:32","slug":"psychological-warfare-khamzat-chimaev-provokes-champ-belal-muhammad-who-claps-back-with-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/psychological-warfare-khamzat-chimaev-provokes-champ-belal-muhammad-who-claps-back-with-humor\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychological Warfare? Khamzat Chimaev Provokes Champ Belal Muhammad&#8230; Who Claps Back with Humor!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"192\" data-end=\"391\">Just days before his first title defense at <strong data-start=\"236\" data-end=\"247\">UFC 315<\/strong>, reigning welterweight champion <strong data-start=\"280\" data-end=\"298\">Belal Muhammad<\/strong> found himself in an unexpected war of words with the ever-controversial <strong data-start=\"371\" data-end=\"390\">Khamzat Chimaev<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"393\" data-end=\"622\">On May 10 in Montreal, Belal will face a career-defining challenge against Australia&#8217;s <strong data-start=\"480\" data-end=\"504\">Jack Della Maddalena<\/strong> in a highly anticipated main event. But before stepping into the cage, sparks have already started to fly outside it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"624\" data-end=\"767\">Chimaev, never one to shy away from mind games, fired off a provoking message on social media:<strong data-start=\"721\" data-end=\"767\">&#8220;Belal, where are you going, little pony?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ru\" dir=\"ltr\">bullyb170 \u043a\u0443\u0434\u0430 \u0442\u044b \u043b\u0435\u0437\u0435\u0448\u044c \u043f\u043e\u043d\u0438 \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i4HMuSSavJ\">pic.twitter.com\/i4HMuSSavJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Khamzat Chimaev (@KChimaev) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KChimaev\/status\/1917344726631457132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"769\" data-end=\"996\">Belal didn\u2019t take the bait emotionally. Instead, he clapped back with wit\u2014posting a photo of himself squaring off with Chimaev while wearing a shirt bearing both of their faces, captioned:<strong data-start=\"960\" data-end=\"996\">&#8220;I&#8217;m moving up to middleweight.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Goin to middleweight <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u4QzXQb3iP\">https:\/\/t.co\/u4QzXQb3iP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/owTlYl8HHH\">pic.twitter.com\/owTlYl8HHH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bullyb170\/status\/1917365423819087988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"998\" data-end=\"1202\">His playful comeback also served as a reminder: the two fighters are currently on different paths. While <strong data-start=\"1103\" data-end=\"1114\">Chimaev<\/strong> is now competing at middleweight, <strong data-start=\"1149\" data-end=\"1158\">Belal<\/strong> remains the king of the 170-pound division.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_52938\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ebOzZnMjDbQ?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=\"1204\" data-end=\"1399\">This isn\u2019t the first time fans have craved a showdown between the two. But Chimaev\u2019s move up in weight\u2014and recent talks of an interim title bout\u2014have pushed that potential clash into uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"1401\" data-end=\"1656\">Still, <strong data-start=\"1408\" data-end=\"1447\">Belal\u2019s focus remains crystal clear<\/strong>: defeat Della Maddalena in Montreal and prove he\u2019s not just a titleholder, but a dominant force. As for Chimaev, the rising tension may one day explode inside the Octagon\u2014if the UFC chooses to make it happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just days before his first title defense at UFC 315, reigning welterweight champion Belal Muhammad found himself in an unexpected war of words with the ever-controversial Khamzat Chimaev. On May 10 in Montreal, Belal will face a career-defining challenge against Australia&#8217;s Jack Della Maddalena in a highly anticipated main event. But before stepping into the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86,21,91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5839","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\/5839"}],"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=5839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5841,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5839\/revisions\/5841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}