Belal Muhammad was not impressed that news of his ankle injury leaked prior to UFC 288.
The co-main event at UFC 288 last Saturday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, saw Belal Muhammad (23-3 MMA) in a welterweight bout with Gilbert Burns (22-6 MMA). The outcome was a unanimous decision win for ‘Remember the Name’.
While the 34-year-old was pleased with the victory, Muhammad was concerned about a ‘rat in my camp’ who leaked the injury ahead of his fight with Burns.
Speaking with ‘ESPN‘s’, Marc Raimondi, Muhammad had this to say about the injury going into UFC 288:
“You go into the fights all the time with injuries, and I’m sitting there like, where the heck, I was looking like, who’s the rat in my camp, but like I said, when you rush things right away… I’m trying to go balls to the wall in two weeks. Injuries happen, stuff happens, but I was like, once it gets to fight night, I had to push through it because I know that once the adrenaline starts pumping, you’re not really going to feel anything anyway and it was like for me to take a fight on two weeks notice and then try to pull out the week of, I was like bro that would give me the worst look ever. There’s now way I’m gonna let that happen.”
Apparently the injury occurred when Belal Muhammad rolled his ankle while running. The camp was required to make adjustments because of the injury and shifted their focus to ‘game planning’ and strategy ahead of UFC 288.
Now the question becomes will this injury put Muhammad out of commission for any length of time.
The top welterweight contender, with his latest victory against Burns, is undefeated in his last 10 bouts in the Octagon.
At the pre-fight news conference, UFC President, Dana White said the winner of Muhammad vs Burns will be next in line for a welterweight title shot:
“One hundred percent … yes, the guy who wins this fight will get the next shot (after Covington).”
Well we now know the winner was Belal Muhammad, and if Dana White is true to his word, he is next in line to get a title shot after Colby Covington.
In the meantime Colby Covington (17-3 MMA) is set to meet Leon Edwards (21-3 MMA) for a title fight, with the date, time and venue yet to be announced by the promotion.
Are you looking forward to Covington vs Edwards? Who do you think will be the victor that will take on Belal Muhammad?
Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!
