{"id":301570,"date":"2025-11-22T14:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/301570\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T14:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T14:02:07","slug":"belal-muhammad-changes-stance-on-potential-clash-with-islam-makhachev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/301570\/","title":{"rendered":"Belal Muhammad changes stance on potential clash with Islam Makhachev"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It sounds like Belal Muhammad is changing his mind about a potential clash with training partner and current UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Muhammad, who faces Ian Garry in UFC Qatar\u2019s co-main event later this afternoon (Sat., Nov. 22, 2025), is coming off a title fight loss to Jack Della Maddalena back at UFC 315 this past May. That snapped an 11-fight unbeaten streak by \u201cRemember The Name\u201d and ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/5\/11\/24427852\/islam-makhachev-reacts-to-jack-della-maddalena-win-at-ufc-315-time-to-become-double-champ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cleared a path for Makhachev<\/a> to move up from lightweight and try to win his second belt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Heading into 2026, things may change when it comes to a matchup between Muhammad and Makhachev. That\u2019s because Makhachev just won the undisputed UFC welterweight title with a win over JDM at UFC 322 last weekend and is looking to actively defend as often as he can. This could lead to a potential showdown with Muhammad, only if both fighters are willing to put their friendship aside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For Muhammad, he seems to be at that point right now, but will need to win this weekend to keep his name in the title hunt entering next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWhen you look too much in the future you look past what\u2019s in front of you,\u201d said Muhammad during a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1F6SOimmSOE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TMZ Sports<\/a>. \u201cWe did that last fight. This fight we\u2019re only looking at Ian Garry and after that you can talk to me Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cYou\u2019re in the sport to be the best in the world,\u201d added Muhammad about the idea of fighting Makhachev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It sounds like Belal Muhammad is changing his mind about a potential clash with training partner and current&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-301570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}