No matter how good Kamal Usman is, seeing his recent trip to the Octagon, all the path to the welterweight title goes through Beral Muhammad.
“Nigeria Nightmare” delivered a vintage performance at UFC Atlanta, giving Joaquin Buckley a dominant decision victory. With the victory, Usman believes it is more than enough to return to the 170 title photo. But Muhammad sees things differently.
As it stands, the entire division awaits the outcome of an unreleased battle with former lightweight king Islam Makhachev, champion Jack Della Maddalena. However, as Muhammad is still strong as a top-ranked welterweight competitor, “remember” believes that anyone who wants a crack in the JDM vs. Makhachev winner must deal with him first.
“He has to go through me,” Muhammad effectively said the issue in an interview with MMA Junkie. “I think I’m still number one, number one guy. It was war. It was a night battle. If JDM were a champion who didn’t want to see that fight yet, for me, these guys deserve a heavyweight title fight after all the people’s acting defeated Buckley.
“I’m like, ‘Brother, you’re one and three of your last four fights.’ He’s trying to avoid it, but at the end of the day, I’m still the number one guy. And whoever fights me, whoever gets that fight next, they have to go through me. ”
Is Beral Muhammad correct?
Kamal Usman’s status as a former world champion and an undeniable draw give him some goodwill, but the former title holder has only won one fight in the last four years, which opposed the man who has not yet entered the top five in the division.
While Usman is worth the name, the fact remains that fighters like Shavkat Rakhmonov, Sean Brady and Belal Muhammad have been far more aggressive and successful in their respective campaigns over the past few years.