Volkanovski Fires Back at Belal Muhammad: ‘Say It to My Face and See What Happens’
Things are beginning to heat up between former featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski and new welterweight world champion Belal Muhammad.
Going into his scrap with Leon Edwards at UFC 304, Muhammad was a sizeable underdog with practically everyone in the MMA community betting on ‘Rocky’ to come out on top by a wide margin. Instead, ‘Remember The Name’ secured a dominant five-round victory on Edwards’ own turf and has been on a bit of an ‘I told you so tour’ ever since.
Recently, Muhammad snapped back at Volkanovski after ‘The Great’ jokingly said that he’d step into the UFC 304 headliner on short notice and suggested that Muhammad would be a “good matchup” for him.
“Cry, right? You guys that were talking,” Muhammad said on the Anik & Florian Podcast. “You guys were hating. All these guys wanted to come out. [Alexander] Volkanovski, ‘Man, I think Belal’s a good matchup for me if I fight him.’ Shut up, bro. I’ll smack the hell out of you. All these guys, right?”
Alexander Volkanovski snaps back at Belal Muhammad
Despite scoring the unanimous decision, Volkanovski was still unimpressed with what ‘Bully B’ showcased inside the Octagon and made that very clear in an unexpected retort on social media.
“@bullyb170 you have every reason to hate on what I said about you being a good stylistic match up for me but I truly believe that, even after your last fight, you didn’t show me anything different,” Volkanovski wrote on X. “You still mad because I accidentally missed your call…pathetic! Say “shut up, I’ll smack the shit out of you” to my face and see what happens.”
While we wouldn’t hold our breath for a cross-division clash between Volk and Muhammad, the new welterweight champ has his sights set on his first title defense in either November or December.
And in a refreshing bit of news, he didn’t call out Conor McGregor or try to plant the seeds for a second UFC belt. Instead, Muhammad did the unthinkable and called out the next man up in his division, Shavkat Rakhmonov.
“I’m not going to sit there and call out these random guys,” he said at the post-fight press conference. “Who’s next in line, who’s best in line. I’m going to show you who I am, what I can do. They thought Leon could walk through me, now I’m going to walk through all these other guys” (h/t BJPenn.com).
