{"id":436628,"date":"2022-03-15T16:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=436628"},"modified":"2022-03-15T16:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T23:00:57","slug":"belal-muhammad-reveals-he-was-supposed-to-headline-ufc-london-against-khamzat-chimaev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/belal-muhammad-reveals-he-was-supposed-to-headline-ufc-london-against-khamzat-chimaev\/","title":{"rendered":"Belal Muhammad reveals he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belal Muhammad revealed he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev.<\/p>\n

After Muhammad beat Stephen Thompson by decision in December he began to call out Chimaev<\/a>. He was vocal about wanting to get that fight and shortly after, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz called him to say he would be headling UFC London on March 19 against Chimaev.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy because it was maybe three or four weeks after my fight, [my manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] called me and said, \u2018They\u2019re offering Khamzat in London as the main event,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Let\u2019s go, book it,\u2019\u201d Muhammad revealed to MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018You sure you\u2019re down? He\u2019s [ranked] No. 11,\u2019 and I [said] I want that fight, let\u2019s go. He said, \u2018OK, but don\u2019t say nothing yet.\u2019 Three or four days later, I\u2019m sitting there messaging my family, they\u2019re looking up tickets to London and getting ready to book, and [I said] don\u2019t do nothing yet until we get a contract because you never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

After agreeing to the fight, Abdelaziz called back when the UFC realized Vicente Luque and Gilbert Burns wouldn’t fight one another. With that, the promotion switched Muhammad to rematch Luque and Burns will now face Chimaev.<\/p>\n

\"Belal<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden it was like [I\u2019m] going to fight Gilbert, Luque is going to fight Khamzat,\u201d Muhammad said. \u201cIt was like alright, whatever, Gilbert is [ranked] No. 2. Then two days later it was, \u2018Alright, it\u2019s you against Luque,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Just send me a contract, I don\u2019t care.\u2019 Obviously, I gain a lot from fighting any one of them out of the three guys. They\u2019re all tough tests anyways, so I don\u2019t care which one of the three it is. Let\u2019s just go. He said, \u2018Alright, it\u2019s going to be Luque,\u2019 so I said sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although this is a massive fight for Belal Muhammad he still wishes he would’ve headlined UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev. Why he wanted that fight was due to the fact he knew if he beat the Swede it would’ve guaranteed him a title shot. Now, a win over Luque still might not do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be skipped over by him in any way, so let me go directly to him. Fight the guy they all want to see fight [Kamaru] Usman next and they\u2019re all hyping up. I\u2019m like, I\u2019d rather just fight that guy next,” Muhammad said.<\/p>\n

Who do you think would’ve won, Belal Muhammad or Khamzat Chimaev?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belal Muhammad revealed he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev. After Muhammad beat Stephen Thompson by decision in December he began to call out Chimaev. He was vocal about wanting to get that fight and shortly after, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz called him to say he would be headling UFC London on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":378578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[16408,81075,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBelal Muhammad reveals he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Belal Muhammad reveals he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev but the promotion decided against it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/belal-muhammad-reveals-he-was-supposed-to-headline-ufc-london-against-khamzat-chimaev\/\" \/>\n<meta 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