MMA Fighting - Belal Muhammad Reacts To Leon Edwards At UFC 304, Covington's Callout, McGregor & More

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Belal Muhammad discusses his recently booked fight against UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards and how he expects this to be one of the "easiest matchups" of his entire career. Muhammad also addresses the strange circumstances surrounding UFC 300, his reaction to Colby Covington finally calling him out after asking for that fight for several years and Conor McGregor's interest in the welterweight title. Plus, Muhammad details working with Islam Makhachev ahead of UFC 302 and possibly drawing Khabib Nurmagomedov out of retirement to corner him against Edwards in Manchester. Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster, The Downloaded.

It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. Available now, only from Audible.

Listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. No idea how excited I am to finally say these words. I am now speaking to the man who will fight for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 304, July 27th at Manchester, England. is my great pleasure to speak to Bilau Muhammad. Below, is it still surreal to finally hear those words to know that the title fight is official? You've been waiting for this for so long.

Yeah, I mean, it took a couple of days to, like, set in, right? Because in the back of your head, you're like, oh, is it going to happen? It's going to happen. And, I mean, you know, I have a manager that Ali, Ali, who told me the whole time, dude, Dana is a man of his word, Hunt is a man of the word. You got to trust him. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

And, yeah, man, I'm glad they kept the, word. I'm glad they did it. Finally, it's on paper. Like, nothing's, nothing's ever finalized until it's on paper. It's finally on paper. And now I could finally say, uh, we have a date. So I'm excited, bro. When did you get the official word? Because I talked to Curtis Blades about like a couple days after the announcement. He had said he heard like basically a week before. Like, I talked to him on a Friday. He had heard it the previous Friday. So it was about like three days later when Dana made the announcement. When did you get official word that you were getting Leon or did you get official word until the announcement was made?

No, yeah, Ali told me, like, I was honestly, like, two weeks before that he said, uh, done deal, but it's still like, right, but I'm waiting for that announcement, right?

Like, because you want to, I want one of those announcements because I've been looking for those announcements forever, waiting anytime Dana pops up, like, oh, he's going to say,

he's going to say it, man, he's going to surprise us. Like, you're always hoping for it. But, yeah, he told us two weeks before.

And then when he finally, like, announced it, like, I was training and I was like, dead training. And then, my coach

Lou hopped on and he like recorded me and then I didn't even realize he said main event and the main event part's a huge part too it's like we're the main event we're headlining the card it's you know it's it's like the perfect situation for me and it's like the perfect scenario

for everything right going into enemy territory being the headliner on the card and I was actually at the original Curtis Blades and Aspenall fight I was down there We were doing stuff for Abu Dhabi, so I flew down there for like two days to watch that fight. So it's crazy how like it goes around full circle. Now they're like the co-main events of my fight and they're getting their rematch and I'm getting my rematch.

And it's funny how stuff works. I love that video. And just to be clear, like that was genuine. That was actually your reaction when he put that, when he turned the camera and said, hey, Dana just made the announcement. I saw it. And I love that video because even you in that moment are like, what? What?

Really? Yeah. Like Lou's always like recording stuff. watching like recording our training and things like that. So I'm sitting there like, we're dead at the end of his practice. And he's coming to meet with another camera. I was like, bro, what? There's nothing else happened.

Bro, I'm not trying to do anything else. And then he just said, hey, do you hear about it? And I was like, it didn't like click in until afterwards. So it was funny. I'm glad he got that moment because it's going to be cool. We talked about Leon so many times going back to the first fight with the iPok. We talked, I want to say, like three days after that fight. you know, you did the interview with me with eyeglasses,

you showed me like how bad your eye was at that point. And even back then, you're like, I want to run it back. We didn't get to finish this. And it just never happened. And you had to continue to win and continue to do things. And he eventually got his title shot, became champion. Can I ask you the honest truth? Like, through this whole ordeal after Gilbert Burns

and knowing you had to wait through the Colby Covington fight, was there ever a moment of doubt? Like, did you ever allow doubt to creep in your head to say, man, maybe this just isn't going to happen? Yeah, I mean, there's always that, you know, that doubt that creeps in because it's, like you waited so long and it's always been another hurdle to get over right there's always been something else something else something else and for multiple times i felt like i've been ready for it

especially after beating luke that fight then i was waiting in the front row when leon and usman fight i'm like usman wins there's nobody else to fight usban but me then all of a sudden that head kick happens they have to do a stupid rematch then they can be uh sean brady and you're like bro that doesn't make any sense then you got to do that then all of a sudden it's like you're still waiting again, Kobe pops out of nowhere, and you're like, bro, it's not going to happen. And then all of a sudden, you get offered the Gilbert Burns fight, three weeks notice, and it's like, this is the fight that's going to make me undeniable. This is the fight that Hunter called me on the phone.

He said, you win this, you're next. You're going to get it. Your next fight will be for the belt. So there's no way I could have said, no. Then we go out there. We beat him. And, like, I spoke with Habib after that fight as well. And he was like, just know that you're going to have to wait.

It's always the longest wait before. you get your first title fight. So just know what's going to happen. So I just trusted him and trusting my team around me, trusting my coaches. And they're, you know, when you got guys in your room,

because we're a small gym, so when I got guys like Ignacio Obama Mondes or Charlie Radkeke-we have fights going up, it's like, it keeps me hungry to stay in the gym with them and watch their guys. And, you know, to see them achieving wins

and achieving their goals, it keeps me motivated as well. Like, I want my guys to win. So during that whole time, it's just being in there with those guys, training with those guys, watching tape on their guys. It just kept me hungry the whole time because I want to see them win.

When one of them win, we all went. So that was like the biggest help for me as well is just having those moments, being with my teammates, being with my brothers, and helping them achieve their goals because right now they're in the gym with me. They're growing with me right now. Nacho is a better version of Leon than Leon is.

And I'm going to need them a lot for this camp. So now he knows it's my turn. And now we're just, we're just ready for this night. I love it. Now, this is all good vibes now because the title fight's official. We're going to get to Leon and the actual fight in a second. But can I ask you what your perspective was around the whole UFC 300 thing?

Because I'll tell you the truth, Bilal, and you can ask anyone on our staff. I had an article written that said Leon Edwards was Bilal Muhammad to headlines, or I think I said headlines or set for UFC. I was so confident that it was going to happen. I had an article written just to wait for the announcement. And then it didn't happen. Then we heard all these rumors. It was going to be Islam.

It was going to be Shavkat. It was going to be all these different things. How much did you hear about all this? Because I was convinced it was 300. Like I said, I had an article written. The article we published that says you're fighting Leon at 304 is the same article I wrote for 300. We just kind of updated it because I've had that article written for months. I mean, honestly, like I literally said it before, I think it was Dana trying to

hype up this bum. This guy does not do any media. This guy doesn't talk. You think they're going to have a champion who threw 50 strikes and a five-round fight against a guy that, you know, disrespected him, disrespected his family. Then he tried to, like, be this tough guy. And you went out there and you freaking throw out a dud.

Like, I think Dana, the UFC knows how to market, right? So they're going to try to market him now as, oh, he said yes to the three killers. And, you know, he said yes to everybody. And Leon, nobody wants to fight Leon, and everybody's afraid of Leon. But honestly, none of it really matters anymore now, right? Because I'm next. I have the date. I have a signed.

So all those other narratives, there's, it's fake to me now. So Leon can go out there and say, oh, this and that. And, you know, the UFC doesn't want him, blah, blah, blah, blah. But there's nothing else now. Now I know I'm going to see you July 27th. I'm going to walk through you. And after that, then you can make up all your stupid narratives. Then after that, you can come up with all your stupid excuses.

But this whole lead up, this whole, his coaches were calling. for Gilbert Burns. His coaches were calling for everybody else. His brother was asking for all these random things. But in the end, I think the UFC, Dana and all of them, they gave me their word. They told me it was going to be next. And I'm next.

So all those other stories, they don't really matter anymore because I'm the one with the contract. I'm the one headlining the card and I'm the one standing in front of Leon for that belt. I don't like to ever paint the narrative that anyone is scared in this sport. Because at the end of

you're fighters, right? Like, you all step in there and put your lives on the line when you step in there. I don't ever like the narrative of someone is quote unquote scared of somebody else. But you are, in my opinion, Bilal, you know, a very high risk, reward, you know, high risk situation because he's been in there with you and for the longest time the narrative was, well, you know, I beat him up in that first round. So the eye poke, it didn't matter. We all know one round fight is not. I mean, if that's the case, go look at four rounds in the first fire the second by Kabbar Usman. We couldn't judge that.

He ended up getting the knockout. How are you going to say one round matters? But is there any part of you that felt like Leon was, I hate to use, I'm not saying scared, like avoiding you for because he knows you're a tough matchup because he knows this is going to be hard. Yeah, no, we can say scared. He was his team, when you have his team and his brothers is like they're using every excuse in the book.

Oh, he didn't deserve. He didn't earn it. He didn't do this. But they're all like, they're not smart. Like, even with their words they use, the examples they had, the, the, the, the other scenarios they wanted. Like, they looked very stupid with the way they were doing it. And it just tells me and it shows me that they understand how much of a bad matchup I am for him.

We did have that one round. What was it? It was like the official stats were like 19 strikes or like 13 strikes or something like that. And you had one head kick that we walked through. We went in back. We were good. So they understand that. They understand what I did in the Clint's.

He felt the strength in there. And then even after that fight, you go through. the matches I had. I've beaten a better striker than him when I be Wonderboy. I've beaten better grapplers than him with Damia, Gilbert Burns. I'd be in better finishers than him

and Luke Kay. Like all the other guys, all the style that I fought in, they're all more complete fighters than him. And the guys now that he's fought, okay, he's beaten Usman. He was going to kill the second fight, then he finished him.

But I think that that one win against Usman, It doesn't equal my wins against Wonderboy, Brady, Damien Maya, like all those wins will match that. Usman went, right? Then he goes out there and he fights Kobe who looks like trash. And Kobe just sucks. So, like, I don't even take anything from that fight or from that win.

And I think Gilbert Burns is a tougher matchup than Kobe. So when we're looking at who we both fought in the last five, six years, I fought the tougher guys. I've had in the tougher camps. And I've grown more than him. And I think him, he knows that. team knows that. And like you said, it's not like I have 10 million followers where it's going to be like, oh, dang, at least he lost to him. People are expecting me to lose. People look at that first

fight and they say, oh, Blouse sucks. They tell me that every fight I suck. They tell me every fight that I'm going to lose. They tell me every fight that my opponent's going to walk through me. But I keep winning. I keep walking through these guys. I keep dominating. There hasn't been a fight where you're like, oh, man, this was a close decision or that was a bad decision. No, I'm dominating these guys. I'm beating these guys. And I'm taking these guys to where they're weakest at. And I think he knows his team knows that and July 27th the world's going to know that do you think because

the first fight with Leon was the best possible circumstance for him because he was going through a full training camp you took the fight on an extremely short notice again unfortunate ending with the eye poke but you wanted to run it back right away let's run it back right away and he didn't want to do it do you feel like he kind

of blew it by not running it back with you back then because I feel like the improvements we've seen out of you in these last couple of years you become not only a better fighter, but a more dangerous fighter. We've seen that with your striking. We've seen that in your fights with John Brady. We saw the Lucke fight. Like, do you feel

like Leon kind of blew it? He could have maybe had a different version of Bilau a few years ago after the Ipoch fight versus the guy he's about to fight for his title in a couple months. This was like literally the biggest mistake of his life. And even dragging this fight on as long as possible because I'm

getting better every single day. I'm not a guy that stays out of the gym. We're growing. And now you got a guy that's been watching you for a full year. Even when I trained for the backup role, I'll show you text messages where I send my boys like, could we do film study? I'm like, I'm only breaking down film I lean.

I don't really care about Kobe. Kobe's an easy fight. So the whole time, we broke down film I lean out, and we took that as a full camp. So now I'm having back to back to back camps all on you. And I'm growing my own skills to your weaknesses. So the worst thing you could have did is give me

more time. The worst thing you could have did is give me extra time. You should have took me back then. Now, you should have took me five months ago. You should have took me three months ago. Every single day that you're letting this drag out, I've gotten better. I'm better and better. In July 27th, I'm going to be the best form that I've ever been. And that's going to be your worst nightmare. We saw it in the Colby fight. We all thought, you know, Colby was going to try to wrestle him and try to go for takedowns. And Colby just didn't fight. And we didn't really do anything in there. And I know Colby had the excuse to broken foot or whatever, but he just didn't perform.

And that's one of those fights where you're like, well, this is where Leon should style on him. Leon should go out there and just decimate this guy because he's not fighting. Colby refused to engage. When you watch it and you watch, you know, because I'm not going to say I try to diminish Leon's fights. Like, he's not a bad fighter. Obviously,

you don't get to this level even in the top 10 without being good in some way, shape, or form. But when you look at his fights with Usman, you know, you look at the second fight where he was losing pretty definitively. He gets the knockout incredible, amazing moment. He comes back, wins the rematch, good for him. It was a close fight.

Three, two, I think is how everyone had that one scored. And then obviously the Colby fight was, again, he won. He clearly won, but I think a lot of that was Colby just didn't do anything in that fight. Do you feel like matchup and style-wise, do you present a lot of problems for Leon that he just hasn't seen in his last few fights? Yeah, 100%. I think when you look at stylistically of why the reasons why they thought Kobe would be a bad

match or for him. It was cardio, it was pressure, it was taken down, keeping volume in his face. And I do all those better than Kobe. I do all those better than Usman. Usman in that third fight, he wasn't the same Usman. People could say whatever they want. I think he came back too soon after that head kick. But in that second fight, it was volume, pressure, and it was breaking Leon. And Leon's easily broken. And I think that's why when you see in between rounds, his coaches, his team, they're all like, they're not giving him advice, right? They're not telling, no, yes, they on the outside jab. No, they're like, you're looking beautiful, Leon, you're a beast, Leon.

Don't let him bully your son. They're all like, they have to give him those words, those little speeches, motivational speeches, because he's got weak mentality. He's not strong enough to go in there and figure it out on his own. Once he starts getting on his back foot, he starts breaking. Once he starts taking out, he starts breaking. Once he starts getting hit, he hates it. So the last two fights that he's had, it's been more.

So let me stay on the outside. Let me keep the pace at what I like it at, right? and Kobe let him keep the pace at what he liked it at. Oosman in that third fight, let him keep the pace at what he liked it at, let him keep a distance at what he liked it at. And when I'm in there, it's not going to be that at all. I'm going to be in your face for the whole 25 minutes.

I'm going to be in your face hitting you hard. And if you're going in there thinking that, oh, man, he doesn't have as good as wrestling as Oosman. Who's taking down Wonderboy more than me, right? People went in there, they expected it. He went against college national champs, and they didn't take him down like I took him down. they didn't uh damia maya had uh usman's back for for how long in that moment where the breath

had to stop it like when you're looking at all these other grapplers and the same fights compared to what i did dami might never had me on the ground at all he never had me any bad spots at all so all these guys the whole world they're all underestimating what i'm capable of because i don't have those accolades of all he's a college wrestler he's this or he's that i'm the best mma fighter complete mhm a fighter there is in this division I love it. I love it. And to that point, Belal, you know, this is such an interesting matchup because your last few fights, I remember talking to you before the Lucke fight, and that was a rematch because obviously he had a win over you early in your career, and you knew what kind of

a dog Lucke was, and it wasn't a particularly close fight afterwards. Like you ended up pretty much dominating that fight. Gilbert Burns, we know how tough he is. We just saw what he had to fight with Jack Delah Madelaine. He's winning, of course, you know, credit to Jack for catching him at the end, but you were, that was not a close fight. It was pretty much a lot of side fight. Sean Brady, who I think is actually a really good fighter. I know Sean has actually paid you a lot of credit after the fact. He talked about you before he got injured with his last fight,

but he had talked, you know, made compliments about you. He had said, and that fight, a lot of hype, a lot of, you know, hype around him and you go out there and knock him out. Do you feel like the Leon fight could be a dog fight, or do you feel like this is going to be pretty one-sighted? Like, I know you're going in there preparing for the absolute war of attrition. this is going to be the hardest fight of your life. But in the back of your head,

are you thinking this could actually be similar to what you did to Gilbert, similar to what you did to Sean, and similar to what you did to Lucke? I honestly think he's going to be one of the easiest matches I've ever had. I think that I'm going to go into it. I'm going to walk through them, and I'm going to make it look easy, and people are going to sit there and everybody always has an excuse

and they're wondering why, or there has to be this reason why I win this fight or why I won that fight or this or that. But once I have the belt, none of that ever matters, right? I've said from the beginning that I'm the best route to weight in this division. And I said from the beginning that I'm going to make it look easy when I beat Leon and dominate Leon. I have had a close fight in the last five years.

Every single one of my fights has been dominant. And I've taken some of the toughest matchups where I've been an underdog in these last five fights. I've been where you've had, you know, the best of the best telling you, the analyst telling you, oh, he's going to get knocked out by him, he's going to get tapped out by him, he's going to do this by him. He doesn't have good enough wrestling to do this, or he doesn't have good enough. enough striking to do this. Watch what I do to Leon. Watch what I go out there and do in front of his people in front of his hometown in front of all of those fans out there that are going to be booing. I'm going to go to enemy territory

and I'm freaking smash him. Then I'm going to look at his coach. I'm look at his brother. I'm going to smile. And I'm going to wait for them to say anything. I'll wait for their excuses. And it's going to be one of the best trips of my life. And I know you've always embraced that underdog role. And I'm not sitting here pat myself on the back to say I was, you know, I was the guy who kept picking Bilal Muhammad all along. I am, but I'm just saying, you know. But they, but they. They love to doubt you, and here you are stepping into enemy territory. And, you know, that's a tough spot for some people.

But it feels like you're embracing it. You love this opportunity. Yeah, honestly, I love it. Like when I look at stuff and I always bring up the fact that, you know, what's God's plan? And, you know, you wanted 300, right? You wanted to be the headliner of a 300 epic thing. But when I saw this opportunity, when I saw it was going to Manchester, I'm like, bro, that's what it is.

That's where this story is like, that's where the chapter ends. That's for this, this title reign, this title run. One of the hardest title runs, I think, in UFC history, when you look at the matches I had, the people I had to fight, it ends with me going to his hometown, beating him on his home soil, and taking the belt from there and bringing it back here. You've obviously, you know, this has been your focus, and I certainly don't want to draw focus away from Leon Edwards,

because this is the fight we've talked about for like four years now. We've talked about him in some way, former fashion, almost every interview we do, because that's been the goal for such a long time. But I know, you know, one thing I wanted to ask you about, because if there's been one kind of complaint about Leon since he's become champion, is he just hasn't been that active. When Kamara was champion,

one thing anyone could say is Kamara was a very active champion. He was actually fighting more than some of the contenders were fighting when he was champion. Can I imagine a Bilal Muhammad title reign is going to be a very active title reign? Well, 100%. Like, I love to fight. Like, you don't have no idea how, like, anti-I am. where I'm like telling my coach bro you know what f-it man let's just do something let's get somebody else let's do this let's do that and when recently I think somebody put out there where

uh... holly was saying Islam was inactive and then they put out the stats and it was like I had the same amount of fights as Islam and Islam and Islam had more fights than all these other guys so me and them both had like seven fights in the recent was five years or something like that but yeah my goal is to win this belt and then go back to Abu Dhabi and take it take the defend my first title defense is there. That's my goal. I want to stay active.

I'm always in the gym. I'm always training. I'm always working. And, you know, we get paid to fight. We don't get paid to sit on the sidelines. Leon, he's, like I said, it's a fear thing. He knows that these next matchups are going to be tough. He knows that he knows that he's going to lose.

He knows that once this fight was signed, it was like, all right, well, this is my last couple chances of, you know, walking around with this belt. last couple of chances of being on a GQ magazine or going to a stupid soccer game or something dumb like that because after he loses, nobody's going to give him any attention. He doesn't get no attention. Otherwise, right? If he didn't have this belt, nobody would know who he is. He doesn't talk for himself.

He doesn't even know how to speak. Even when he goes on these podcasts, he's like whispering. He just looks so stupid. He looks fearful. And he just looks like he doesn't belong here. The belt doesn't belong on his shoulder. It belongs on my shoulder. and yeah, once I get the bell, I'm going to go the division.

And my goal isn't just to be the champion. My goal is to be the best way to ever do it. So for me to go out there and beat Leon, who beat Usma twice, who everybody thought was the best route to wait to do it, right? Then I'm up there and I'm ahead of it. And I'm right underneath GSP. Then when you're looking at both of our lineups, it's like, well, I'd be wonderful, I'd be this guy, be that guy.

Then I get these next young killers who people are still, they're going to beat me, right? You give me the shopcats. You give me the JDMs, the Ingaries. And then I walked through all of them. There's nothing else, right? I'm just going to be cemented as the best to ever do it. I love it.

Now, a couple of, I don't care it was a few months ago, but it was a year ago. It's been a while now. The Dana White had announced that the UFC had changed their policy where they were allowing fighters to walk out with flags again. I always thought that was a weird thing that they took away the flags. I always thought it was really cool to walk out with flags. Can I ask? Because I remember we did a story years ago when you were going to find.

Navadabu, the pride you had and being able to walk out with the Palestine flag when you were going to fight Nabudab and how much, how excited you were for that. We all know the turmoil and atrocities being carried out and everything that's happening in Palestine right now. Will there be a better, like, can you control your emotions of walking down to your title fight? Can I assume you're going to have that Palestinian flag wrapped right around you? Yeah, 100%. It's honestly, it's like, you, you, with the sort of message that I got, like, you want to

to cry because the people over there, like the stuff that they're going through, they still got so excited for me. They still got, I still got messages of like, oh my God, we're going to have a champion. We're going to have the flag's going to have a belt next to the same. The flag's going to have a real champion. And it's amazing for me because, like I said, these people are so strong. These people are every single day, they're starving, they're dying. They have no place to go. But they're still trying to support me, right? They're still showing. that love and the support of me when, you know, the best I could do is carry that flag. The list of the least I could do, right?

That's the least I could do for them is to win and to give it my all and to go to go through every session, every practice that I have and kill myself just to bring it closer to win in this belt. And there's nobody that's going to take that away from me. Leon's, I'm fighting for something more than just this belt. I'm fighting for my people. I'm fighting for these people to have something to cheer for rather over there, to have something to cheer for while they're sitting there in rubble while they're sitting there starving

and if it just gets their mind off of what they're going through to the atrocities for 10 seconds 15 minutes 25 minutes but they can be able to watch this fight it's going to be the best feeling for me because these fight this fight is nothing they're they're real fighters they're the real warriors they're the real people out there uh that are fighting a tougher fight than this like i get motivated every day seeing how strong these people are how strong these people are how strong world they are, how strong religiously they are to have a smile on their face and say God's plan is the best plan. God's plan. God put us here for a reason. God has our story to be told this way so the world sees it like us and shows the world how strong Muslims are, how strong

Palestinians are. And I'm going to go out there July 27th. I'm going to show you how strong a Palestinian is. I love it. I love it. Can I ask, I'm curious, because one guy that you had called out for so long when you were waiting trying to get to the title show. You had called out Colby Covington so many times. Did you laugh when you heard he finally called you out like two weeks ago? Did you at least get a chuckle out of that? Like you called him out

for like two years straight, never got a response. You're getting a title fight. Now he wants to fight you. That was honestly the funniest thing. And I was like I'm not even going to bring attention to it because then I'm going to have to go back and forth to them. But I was like, you know what, this guy's a joke now.

And he understands he's a joke now. He understands he's a joke now so he's trying to go out there and call out these bigger names now right where he's calling on me he's called olivera oh he and gary's not worth it why because he and gary's a bad matcher for you like he knows that if he loses one more fight it's over like how terrible that matchup that last fight was he's desperate for something he's desperate for a win so uh i think he's going to sit there and he's going to wait maybe he's going to call out of 45 or somebody and uh hope one of those guys bite on the bullet And then you got Connor coming back. Connor's something of you, a welterweight champion.

Listen, let me be clear about this. I don't, I, people think I have something against Connor because I've said for a long time, I thought maybe he wasn't even going to fight again. I don't have a problem with Connor. Connor's a lightweight. Connor is not a welterweight. He's not really fought welterweight. He fought Cowboys Seroni.

He fought Nate Diaz. And he's fighting Michael Chandler. They're all lightweights. I'm sorry, they are. But would there be an easier way for you to get a bigger paycheck than if the UFC actually tried to make that fight. I know you're not going to call him out. I know you well enough, Balali, you might make a joke at him because you have some of your funniest Twitter responses are usually about Connor. But I know you're looking at Shavkat. You're looking at Ian Gary. You're

looking at, you know, Jack, the guys you mentioned, the young killers in the division. But if they threw Connor at you, can I imagine that would be like the quickest contract you'd ever sign? Yeah, I don't think that would be like hilarious because it'll be it'll be funny because I know that would never happen even now who knows if he's even going to make the June 29 fight right

we've seen him hugging trees he's just a weird person even in that interview he looked like he was strung out on stuff and he was just calling on everybody talking about everybody but yeah I mean I think he's going to go out there and I think Chandler's going to beat him honestly

so I think I'm going to give Chandler that win but you never know right Leon will still probably call him out after that fight so I let both of these guys lose and they call each other out and end up fighting each other for nothing. Now, I know you've been out in training with Islam and that team. I think you said, I saw your show, remember the show you do, which, by the way, every

time I watch that show, I still get freaked out that Jason and John are twins. It still freaks me out no matter how many times I watch your show. He's just Jason guys too. But you come out. I know you said Khabib is out there. He had showed up last week and he's out there getting ready for the last part of Islam. How much has that team added to your game? I know you got a great group of guys around you and you've worked a lot of the same guys in

Chicago for years. but I know I talked to you before when you first worked through that camp. Can I imagine this has been a huge benefit for you as you get ready for Leon to work with guys like Islam, Umar, I assume. I don't know if Usman's out there right now. I know Kibb just got in town. I imagine that's a huge benefit. Yeah. Yeah, Usen's out there.

Yeah, bro. It's, I'm getting to work with the Michael Jordan. What I think is the Michael Jordan of the MMA. I get to work with Habib. And Islam right now, like the Kobe Bryant, the LeBron James. like they're both the best to ever do it. So just getting that knowledge, getting that feel. You can see I got two black eyes going with these guys.

It's a different level going with these guys. And it's just to get their opinions of stuff, right? Habib is so smart. And he's so good at breaking down guys and just getting the knowledge that he gives me. It's like working one day with Habib is like working, getting like 50 days with anybody else. Because he's so smart and he's so good at everything. and he, like, the little things he'll show you will, like, make a huge difference.

So, yeah, it's priceless to get to work with the guys. And I'm like, every time I think about it, I'm like blessed because I was always like a fan of his. And it's like, now I get to train with these guys and work out with these guys and see what they do and see how they push. And they're both champions. They're both undefeated champions.

And, you know, just to get that feel, right? And get a piece of Islam's camp because it's a different, it's a different aura when you're in a champion. camp. It's a different feeling when you're in that type of environment when he's about to fight for the belt. You get a feel for it. You get ideas of it and just getting their advice on little things too. Like, oh, Islam fought early when he fought in Australia. So asking him what he did, what he did over there? How did it feel over there? What's the difference over there? And what does he think with fighting in over here at 3 a.m? So those little things, it's a lot of, it's like priceless knowledge. And yeah, it's been amazing.

Are you going to try to pull Kabib out of retirement to be in the corner? I know you had told me a long time ago. you're like, I'm going to put Kabib in the corner. And right after that, he decided to step back from being like a full-time coach. Are you going to try to pull him out? Because I feel like that would be really cool to see Kavib come out with you. Bro, that would be priceless. That would be amazing. You know, hopefully we're going to try to nudge the shoulder a little bit and, you know,

do a little bit of begging. But, yeah, hopefully, man, he's been in the gym. He's been working more. So I'm hoping he gets to it's to be in a corner more. I know for the longest time, Islam had talked about being a two-division champ. and I think unfortunately he kind of missed his break because obviously I think the Leon fight would have been his path but I know you I assume you guys would never actually fight

so I think that's kind of like now you guys do you rule well to wait he can stick around a lightweight and then maybe down the road like you know you know because obviously you know Islam's an incredible fire I'm sure you're confident he's going to be Dustin Porre but I know he's talking about being a two division champion but now you guys are part of the same family yeah I would never fight him 100%

but honestly he could go up to 185 and beat DuPlauses right now. I think he's that good, really. I think he could go up there and be that two-division champ, skip over 170 for a little bit. Let me beat a couple of these younger guys. And then I'll go up to 185, bro. He has plenty of time,

man. He's dominating these fights. He's winning easily. And you know, I think he's going to continue on that path of just being a dominate champion. So he's got plenty of years left. Like he tweeted out or said something about it recently in an interview saying, like, yeah, I'm still hungry. I'm still here.

So I think he got a long time to to go. You keep training with those guys. You're going to have to add one more, you know, one more name on the end. It's, you know, you're American, Palestinian. You might be Dagestani too before too much longer, Bilal. Yeah, honestly, man. And then it's cool because I was able to bring Ignacio Obama Mondes with me for this time.

And for him to get to work with them, this was his first time going and training with those guys. So it's like, now our, now my core is leveling up. We're all leveling up now. So it's cool to experience and it's cool to be able to take my boys with me. Absolutely. Well, Belaw, this has been such a long time coming. I'm so happy for him. I'm so excited.

I know it's weird. Like, say congrats because the congrats will come after you win the title. I know you just been excited. It's just been like such a long time coming. Like, man, I'm just so glad it's finally here. It's finally official. The date's done. The contracts are signed.

There's nothing else happening. You're going to fight Leon Edwards. You got to do it like four in the morning, which is going to be a little odd. But, you know, you kind of roll with the bunches, right? Yeah, 100%. Like, I always look back at that Kobe quote, where he put, job not done job not done they're like you're not smiling yet that's the thing now where it's like everybody's congratulating you for getting it but you're like the job's not done and yeah whether

it's 4 a.m. 5 a.m. 6 a.m. 8 p.m. doesn't matter. I'm walking through leon regardless. And you know the deal. I've told you this many times while you win the title obviously you're doing it in Manchester so you got to fly home Monday Tuesday whenever you get back this interview's happened I'm just telling you head of time you're not you're not skipping it you're not avoiding it you got to come back and see me because like I said there's one guy banging the drum for Bala Muhammad to get a title fight for quite a long time. I want to say I don't know if I've been leading that charge, but I've definitely been on the bandwagon for a while now.

No, 100%. You're giving me my first one, always. Like, you start realizing who's been loyal to you and who's not been loyal to you, right? And you start paying attention to these little things. And, oh, man, I took notes, man. I kept receipts. So, yeah, there's a lot of guys out there that are going to be asking me for interviews. I'm like, nah, sorry, I'm busy.

I appreciate. Well, Blau, man, have a great training camp. I'm super excited for you. I know you are so amped up and ready to do this. I'm assuming you probably be like, let's fight tomorrow get leon let's throw them in the cage let's fight tomorrow but july 27 is going to be huge thank you as always for the time have a great training camp man safe travels over to manchester of course and expect a uh expected post-fight text like maybe 10 minutes after the fight

sure my brother appreciate you all right blile we'll talk soon see you brother you're listening to the vox media podcast network okay only 10 more presents to wrap you're almost at the finish line But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to luxe beauty and fragrance sets,

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