Belal Muhammad’s loss to Della Maddalena via unanimous decision: “I didn’t stick to the plan” Belal Muhammad opens up on his loss to Maddalena at UFC 315.
Muhammad had earlier lost the UFC welterweight title to jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 via unanimous decision . Before the fight Muhammad had promised he would be showing off “Canelo hands” when facing Della Maddalena. Jack Della Maddalena came in with devastating strikes and jabs and Muhammad kept eating the shots by Maddalena. Muhammad later landed a few blows and connected on the chin, but Maddalena kept coming forward. Many of Muhammad’s fans expected him to go for a takedown but he stayed on his feet exchanging shots, with these moves his fans suspected that wasn’t his initial plan and it was confirmed by Muhammad on Friday that truly, it wasn’t.
“I think I have the best team in the world, some of the best coaches in the world, and we go into every fight with a strategy and idea of what we want to do,” Muhammad said on Remember the Show. “Obviously, for us, what our strategy was was to take down Jack. It wasn’t to go blow-for-blow with him, brawl-for-brawl with him.
“But, man, it’s a weird moment when you’re training something so much and you’re getting better at something, which I think my striking has grown so much and I’ve always said it. When I said that in the lead-up, I wasn’t lying about it. ‘Bro, I can box with him, I can strike with him. I’m not afraid to strike with him.’ And I went out there and I just felt good “
‘i didn’t stick to the plan’ Muhammad candidly admitted to deviating from his game plan, choosing to engage in a striking battle rather than leveraging his wrestling strengths. He expressed his determination to learn from this experience and return stronger, stating, “I went against the game plan, and at the end of the day, I’m going to live with that.”
Even though he lost, Muhammad is staying strong. He’s relying on his faith and past challenges to push forward. On social media, he said, “Allah’s plan is the best plan. Thank you to all my supporters. I’ve been here before, and I’ll be back.”
Belal Muhammad’s loss is just a minor setback according to him. It took him a long time to finally get his title opportunity, and he’s not ready to call it quits just because he lost his first title defense.
“I still have that hunger, desire to keep achieving greatness,” Muhammad said. “There’s nothing in me that’s like, ‘I’m done now, I’m sad now, let’s see what YouTubers are out there.’ I’m still chasing legacy, I’m still chasing GSP. GSP lost his belt and he gained it back. So for my mentality, it’s, ‘We’re still here.’ I don’t care how old they are or how old they think I am, go in there and beat me. And there’s not a lot of guys that are able to do that”
Though things didn’t go his way this time, Belal Muhammad’s attitude and drive prove he’s far from finished. He’s focused and ready to come back stronger, and fans can definitely expect big things from him down the road.
