Belal Muhammad did not include Kamaru Usman when listing who should be on the welterweight Mount Rushmore.

While his fighting style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no way of denying how solid the run Belal Muhammad has been on is. The 33-year-old is unbeaten in his last eight fights and while one of those was a no contest against Leon Edwards, he’s still managed to pick up some notable wins with his last three coming against Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson and Vicente Luque.

His end goal is to defeat UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and yet when asked about who should be on the 170-pound Mount Rushmore during a recent interview, Muhammad didn’t put ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ up there.

“My welterweight Mount Rushmore? GSP, obviously; I would put T-Woodley; I would put Matt Hughes; and then I would put maybe BJ Penn, just because he had that one fight, but that’s my [list] right now,” Muhammad said.

The podcast host went on to ask if Usman deserves to be on that list.

“No, he ain’t getting that respect until he beats me,” Muhammad declared. “And if you’re looking at it, I tell people, people keep saying he’s one of the best welterweights ever of all time. I’m like, he’s beaten Colby twice, he’s beaten Masvidal twice, he’s beaten Gilbert [Burns].

“Those are just three guys. It’s not like he’s gone through seven or eight different opponents. I mean, I respect him as a champion. He’s staying busy. But you’re fighting rematches before you’re giving other guys a chance to match up against you.”

Quotes via MMA News

What do you think is next for Belal Muhammad? Is there a chance we will see him challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title at some point in the next few years?