UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad scoffs at Shavkat Rakhmonov’s request for an interim title fight: “Bro, it’s six weeks”
UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad has dismissed Shavkat Rakhmonov’s idea for an interim title fight at UFC 310.
As we know, Belal Muhammad is the current king of the welterweight division. We also know that he was scheduled to defend the belt against Shavkat Rakhmonov in the main event of UFC 310. Now, however, Rakhmonov has been left without an opponent after Muhammad was forced to pull out due to injury.
This has led to some talk of an interim title fight being made. Of course, given the stakes of a fight like that, it makes sense that there are plenty of fighters who are willing to take on Shavkat – even on short notice.
In the eyes of Muhammad, though, an interim belt doesn’t make sense.
Muhammad responds to Rakhmonov
“I could see them trying to do something with Shavkat, but he’s calling for an interim title fight and I’m like, interim title fight? Bro, it’s six weeks, not six months that I’m off,” Muhammad told Jon Anik. “But even for myself, if they want to just do that to make it a main event … I mean, I don’t really care about it if they want to make it a title fight regardless because they know who has the real belt. So for me, I know who my next opponent is gonna be. If he wants to wait, it’s gonna be us.”
This follows on from similar comments made by another popular UFC commentator.
“We’ve got to stop with the interim title, there’s no need to make an interim title,” former UFC heavyweight champion and current color commentator, Daniel Cormier, said during the UFC Edmonton Fan Q&A. “Belal just won the belt in June or July? Back when I was fighting, if you got hurt, you had a year before they made an interim champion. Now, it’s like people are calling for interim titles — you can almost will yourself into an interim title championship at this point.”
Quotes via MMA Mania
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