Belal Muhammad reveals he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev

Belal Muhammad revealed he was supposed to headline UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev.

After Muhammad beat Stephen Thompson by decision in December he began to call out Chimaev. He was vocal about wanting to get that fight and shortly after, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz called him to say he would be headling UFC London on March 19 against Chimaev.

“It’s crazy because it was maybe three or four weeks after my fight, [my manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] called me and said, ‘They’re offering Khamzat in London as the main event,’ and I was like, ‘Let’s go, book it,’” Muhammad revealed to MMA Fighting. “He’s like, ‘You sure you’re down? He’s [ranked] No. 11,’ and I [said] I want that fight, let’s go. He said, ‘OK, but don’t say nothing yet.’ Three or four days later, I’m sitting there messaging my family, they’re looking up tickets to London and getting ready to book, and [I said] don’t do nothing yet until we get a contract because you never know.”

After agreeing to the fight, Abdelaziz called back when the UFC realized Vicente Luque and Gilbert Burns wouldn’t fight one another. With that, the promotion switched Muhammad to rematch Luque and Burns will now face Chimaev.

“All of a sudden it was like [I’m] going to fight Gilbert, Luque is going to fight Khamzat,” Muhammad said. “It was like alright, whatever, Gilbert is [ranked] No. 2. Then two days later it was, ‘Alright, it’s you against Luque,’ and I was like, ‘Just send me a contract, I don’t care.’ Obviously, I gain a lot from fighting any one of them out of the three guys. They’re all tough tests anyways, so I don’t care which one of the three it is. Let’s just go. He said, ‘Alright, it’s going to be Luque,’ so I said sure.”

Although this is a massive fight for Belal Muhammad he still wishes he would’ve headlined UFC London against Khamzat Chimaev. Why he wanted that fight was due to the fact he knew if he beat the Swede it would’ve guaranteed him a title shot. Now, a win over Luque still might not do that.

“I don’t want to be skipped over by him in any way, so let me go directly to him. Fight the guy they all want to see fight [Kamaru] Usman next and they’re all hyping up. I’m like, I’d rather just fight that guy next,” Muhammad said.

Who do you think would’ve won, Belal Muhammad or Khamzat Chimaev?