Belal Muhammad wants to “smack around” Dricus Du Plessis even if he loses to Khamzat Chimaev next

UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad wants to smack around Dricus Du Plessis whether he is the champion or not.

Muhammad is set to defend his welterweight title in the main event of UFC 315 against Jack Della Maddalena. If Muhammad wins, he has shown interest in moving up to middleweight to be a champ-champ. But, now Muhammad says he just wants to fight Du Plessis even if he loses to Khamzat Chimaev next time out.

“He got a tough test in front of him with Khamzat,” Muhammad said to MMAJunkie. “I don’t think he’s going to get past Khamzat. But, maybe I’ll still go up there anyways to smack him around. I love that energy when I get guys up there like, ‘Oh, he’s too small,’ or he’s too this. I get that even at 170. I’m not the biggest 170-pounder. I’m not the strongest or the fastest, but I’m the best. If I go up to middleweight, I’ll be the best as well.”

Although Dricus Du Plessis is the middleweight champ, Belal Muhammad has confidence he would be able to get to the win. Muhammad thinks he would walk through Du Plessis shots and would win the fight, but says he still has work to do at welterweight.

“I would literally take his shots, eat them, and then walk through them,” Muhammad said. “Dricus – I know what I gotta do first: I gotta win a couple more fights, and then I can start talking about going up. We’ll see if he still has the belt by that time.”

Belal Muhammad puts attention to Jack Della Maddalena

The hope for Belal Muhammad is to be a champ-champ soon, the focus is on Jack Della Maddalena right now.

Della Maddalena is a tough challenge for Muhammad, but the champ is confident in his skillset.

“I got a tough task in front of me with JDM, right? And we’ll go from there. I never like to look way too far ahead because you have all these plans, but then God has a plan,” Muhammad said. “For me, my plan was to beat Shavkat in December, it didn’t happen. My plan was to beat Shavkat in May, didn’t happen. So now, we got somebody else, so my eyes are locked on him. He’s my bullseye right now and that’s all I’m worried about.”

Muhammad won the belt back in July with a decision win over Leon Edwards.