Belal Muhammad and Colby Covington
Belal Muhammad continues to call out Colby Covington for a fight against him, this time by mocking him for his broken tooth in an altercation against Jorge Masvidal
The MMA community had been divided ever since reports of Jorge Masvidal attacking Colby Covington at a restaurant in Miami first emerged. While some grievously condemned Masvidal’s actions suggesting that he had 25 minutes at UFC 272 to do some damage, others were of the opinion that these are the repercussions of Covington’s disrespectful and insolent behavior over time. Another incident that broke the internet was when Will Smith won his first Academy Award at the 2022 Oscars after decades of an illustrious career – but the moment was overshadowed by his own act prior to that. The world was dumbfounded when Will Smith rushed to the stage to punch Chris Rock who poked fun at his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
Belal Muhammad who is himself quite active on the internet when it comes to hilarious tweets, and fan engagements, has been calling out for a fight against the ‘Chaos’ for the longest time. He believes his style can put a halt to Covington’s pace and a win against him will guarantee the number one spot.
Muhammad posted a meme on Twitter, where Chris Rock’s face was photoshopped to Colby’s, and Will Smith’s face was photoshopped to his. He poked fun at Colby by reminding him of the tooth he lost during a physical altercation with bitter rival Jorge Masvidal. He captioned the post, ‘ Anyone seen chipped tooth colby l👀’
In the main event of UFC Vegas 51, Muhammad showed the world the improvements he has made in his game and the development he’s had as a martial artist since his loss at UFC 205. Muhammad has been on a roll and won a unanimous decision over the #5 ranked, Vicente Luque.
The fight began with Luque immediately taking the center of the octagon trying to establish octagon control, and overwhelm Belal with his striking reminiscent of what transpired at UFC 205. However, Muhammad had levelled up since then and came in completely aware of the threat his opponent posed. Belal used a lot of lateral movements when his back was against the cage, which did not give the Brazilian any opportunity to settle and land his usual combinations.
What Muhammad also did efficiently in the first two rounds was move laterally, and just when Luque would expect him to be on the other end of the oscillation trajectory, Belal would pop in and hit him with a stiff jab or crisp 1-2 of the middle, And when Luque started to measure this sequence, and started plotting his counter, Belal would tower in with a raging bull takedown and put Luque on his back.
Belal won the first two rounds comfortably, but Luque came back strong in the third round, stuffing takedown attempts. The biggest movement for him came in the third round came when his cornerman made a read of Belal’s lateral movement that exposed him to loopy shots from the wide, and Luque hit him with a strong hook that wobbled him. However, Belal maintained his composure and sailed through the round without sustaining serious damage.
It was 29-28 going into the championship rounds, but Belal looked like the fighter who wanted the fight more, and pushed extra hard to get his hand raised. Before the fight, Luque had been taken down a maximum of three times in a fight, but Belal took him down a total of 6 times with great takedown accuracy. In the end, it was Muhammad who got his hand raised owing to a unanimous decision victory.
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