UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad has dismissed Conor McGregor’s recent social media attack.
Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) recently acquired the UFC’s welterweight crown by dominating Leon Edwards at UFC 304. McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) fired verbal shots at Muhammad, criticizing his fighting style and drawing power, while vowing to become a three-division champion.
“I’d love to crush my left hook into Belal’s temple and take down the triple crown,” McGregor wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I’d do it easily. And fast!
“To think this bum is now a UFC champion with zero knockdowns on his resume whatsoever is so bad. The UFC’s most abysmal zero revenue generating fighter in modern history.”
McGregor, who won titles in the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight divisions, has three times at 170 pounds in the UFC. Not only does Muhammad not see a path for a potential showdown in the octagon, he believes McGregor’s fighting career is over.
“I don’t think he fights again, ever,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I think that he’s in that part of his life now where he’s starting to realize people are starting to forget about him. He loves that attention so much, so when he sees something happening in the UFC that’s getting headlines, he wants to take that attention.
“I get a fight announced and he wants to act like, ‘Oh, I’ll fight this guy,’ and he knows people are going to talk about it and speak about it. Even after big fights – watch after the Max Holloway fight against Ilia Topuria, he’s going to come up with a stupid speech.”
Muhammad is set for his first title defense less than five months after winning the title. He’ll take on undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov in the main event of UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
McGregor hasn’t competed since breaking his lower leg in July 2021 at UFC 264 in a trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier. He has long been linked to a fight against Michael Chandler, but the fight continued to get pushed back further to the point Chandler decided to move on.
Recently, McGregor has appeared at BKFC events, the bareknuckle boxing promotion of which he is now a part-owner. In interviews, the Irishman claims he’s eager to return to action, but he and the UFC cannot seem to get on the same page.
McGregor has found a new potential opponent in Dan Hooker, who recently agreed to fight while at a BKFC event.
Muhammad thinks it’s all a part of McGregor’s plan to stay on people’s minds.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Muhammad said. “He knows he’s going to get people to speak about him and say, ‘Oh, maybe McGregor will come back in 2027. Maybe McGregor will come back in 2028.
“I think he needs to hit rehab first. Once he gets clear and clean, then he can get back in the gym and get back to working out.”
