Belal Muhammad Ignored His Strengths — And Paid the Price, Says Whittaker

Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker believes Belal Muhammad has no one to blame but himself for his loss in the UFC 315 main event.

Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) lost his UFC welterweight title in his first attempted defense on Saturday night, getting outstruck over five rounds by Jack Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC).

“Remember the Name” entered the bout as a strong favorite, in part because Della Maddalena had previously shown weaknesses in his takedown defense against opponents like Bassil Hafez and Gilbert Burns. Many fans expected Muhammad to lean on his grappling advantage, but instead he chose to strike with “JDM” for five rounds—a strategy that ultimately backfired.

“I expected more takedowns,” Whittaker said on his MMArcade Podcast. “When he mixed in the striking to bring Jack onto him, to mix into his shots, they were clean every time. I think his only two takedowns more or less were from the open mat, drawing Jack into him. Now why didn’t we see more of that? I can’t help but feel like Belal was trying to make a point striking with Jack for the first three rounds. If that’s the case, that is ridiculous. Jack is amazing at that mid-range boxing. One of my paths to victory for Jack was to embrace the dogfight and make Belal pay for every step he went forward and every time he walked away, which Jack did unbelievably.”

Throughout his climb up the welterweight ranks, Belal Muhammad earned a reputation for his suffocating pace and grind-heavy wrestling. That blueprint proved highly effective against some of the division’s most dangerous strikers, including dominant wins over Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Vicente Luque, and a championship-clinching performance against Leon Edwards at UFC 304.

“What brought Belal to the title and made him champion was the fact that he could punch, punch, shoot, punch, punch, punch,” Whittaker said. “He’s not Gilbert Burns on the ground. He’s not a guy that when he gets you on your back, he’s going to start working those tricky submissions, and you’re in a very dangerous spot. He is just that game. He’s that punch, punch, shoot, punch, punch, shoot, and we didn’t see that.”

Paul Browne

Paul Browne is a professional mixed martial arts commentator, feature writer and podcaster based in Dublin, Ireland.