Picture this: A champion of one of the most dangerous sports in the world, sitting across you at the table, with a broken nose and a flashy belt to show for all the blood and sweat he endured to get to where he is today. If that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will.
The man in picture here is Belal Muhammad, UFC champion of the Welterweight division. It is historic because when he triumphed over Leon Edwards at UFC 304, he became the first Palestinian to lift the belt.
“This is the moment you’ve been waiting for your whole life, and when you finally achieve it, it feels amazing,” the 36-year-old says in a conversation with City Times. “All the years of hard work, the grind, the ups and downs, the blood, sweat, and tears – it was an epic night for me, my family and my people.”
Belal’s journey
Belal started his career 13 years ago when he was 23, which is considered late in the UFC world. When he first started training, Belal aspired to make it to the UFC. “I was going to keep fighting, learning, getting better, and winning,” he said. “And then once you get a certain amount of wins, you think you’re good enough to be in the UFC.”
But once Belal got there, he lost his debut bout. And he didn’t want to be one of those people who make it to the UFC, lose, and then disappear. “When I lost, we made adjustments, found the right gyms, kept working hard, and growing until I was ready to go ranked,” he said.
The hardest part about rankings, Belal says, is fighting upwards. “Everybody wants to just hold their ranking,” Belal said. “Nobody wants to fight downward.”
Surprisingly, stepping in the octagon isn’t something Belal had planned on when he was in school. Instead, he wanted to be a lawyer.
“I was in school to become a lawyer and I didn’t even start fighting until I saw my high school wrestling coach Lewis Taylor,” he said. “He was fighting for Strikefoce and then I just messaged him on Facebook asking about his gym. I started training and learning from him once a week, and soon I got addicted to it. Then I wanted to learn more about it because I was always competitive. But I never thought of this as a job until I started working with him (Lewis) and got better.”
What’s next for Belal?
Before UFC 304, Belal was on an eight-week camp, training for his championship bout against Leon Edwards. “This is the best I ever looked,” he said, referring to his physique after eight weeks of training. “And the best I ever fought.”
But what’s next?, we asked. The UFC Welterweight champion is currently enjoying his “eating workouts,” he says, “We’re still a couple days after the fight so coach isn’t letting me train yet. We have a couple of injuries from the fight, so we’re taking it slow.”
For someone who’s never satisfied with where he is, Belal is still looking at his next goal. “I never sit and just appreciate how far I’ve come, because I am goal oriented.” he said. “I am going to keep having these goals set so I can keep achieving them.”
That said, Belal whose nickname is “Remember The Name,” has Kazakh fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov in his targets. But not in October as Belal is still recovering from the injuries. “October is going to be too soon,” he said. “But before the end of this year, December makes the most sense. Once we get back home, we will see what needs healing and then figure out a date with the UFC.”
For his people, for Palestine
In these times of adversity, Belal’s historic win is huge for Palestine. “I hope this is a collective victory, it is a win for them” he said. “To get any type of victory in any day is a blessing. And with them, they always see themselves as blessed no matter what’s happening. You see the looks in their faces, the strength in their eyes, there’s nothing that’s ever going to break them.”
He continued: “I get my strength from them, seeing how hard they push, work, and the resilience they have inside of them. So even when it’s fight-day for me, there’s nothing to be afraid of, it is not a life or death situation. But for them, every day is life and death. So if I could give them a smile on their face, it’s a blessing in my end.”
“I am going to keep speaking for you, fighting for you, and winning for you until the day you’re free, until the day that we can celebrate together, until the day that the world will see you and your country will be cemented. And there will be nothing that can erase you guys, nothing that can stop you guys from existing. You deserve to exist and you will exist.”