Belal Muhammad is willing to move up to middleweight to face Khamzat Chimaev

Belal Muhammad is willing to look for fascinating middleweight matches if he is denied a crack at the welterweight championship.

With nine straight victories, Belal Muhammad (22-3-1) is presently undefeated. He just defeated Brady. Just before that, he defeated Vicente Luque, Stephen Thompson, and Demian Maia by unanimous decision. Additionally, he was the main event of a Fight Night show alongside Leon Edwards, resulting in a No Contest outcome.

Muhammad, who is rated #4 at welterweight, won't be having the next championship chance since Colby Covington is now the top challenger. If Jorge Masvidal had defeated Gilbert Burns in the co-main event of UFC 287 last Saturday, he might have been considered in contention for a title shot.

Although he has spoken about presumably facing Kamaru Usman next, he is considering moving to 185 pounds to take on Khamzat Chimaev or Sean Strickland if it fails to work out.

“At that point, I’m just going to go up to 185, honestly,” Muhammad told reporters backstage at UFC 287. “I’m going to go look for Chimaev again. He moved up. I can fight at 185 – I’m not worried about it. So I’ll move up, look for him, (and) maybe he’ll finally come out and play that game. I made it to the top at 170. (At) 185, I’ll do the same thing.

“If I’m not going to get a title fight, just give me the fights that really get me excited. Give me like a Sean Strickland – somebody that I dislike, somebody that I hate, that would be fun to punch in the mouth.”

Since neither Chimaev nor Strickland has a middleweight opponent lined up right now, Muhammad may decide to step up and take on either of them at 185 pounds, particularly when the UFC decides against giving him a championship opportunity.

According to Dana White, the organization intended Muhammad to face Shavkat Rakhmonov as his next bout, but Belal refused since he was unwilling to square off with someone below him in rankings since knocking out Sean Brady in October.

If a matchup between Muhammad and Chimaev does come to fruition, it is sure to be an exciting fight that will have fans on the edge of their seats. Muhammad's grit and determination will be put to the test against the explosive power of Chimaev, and the winner will undoubtedly take another step toward UFC stardom.