MMA Fighting - Fighter vs. Writer | Belal Muhammad Expects an "Easy Win' For Kamaru Usman Over Colby Covington in UFC 268 Main Event

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

UFC welterweight contender Belal Muhammad joins The Fighter vs. The Writer as co-host for episode 10 to help preview the upcoming UFC 268 main card headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington 2. Muhammad will breakdown the entire main card including the main event and he explains why he believes Usman is headed for an “easy win” after breaking Covington’s jaw in their first meeting nearly two years ago. Muhammad will also give his picks for the rest of the main card including the strawweight title fight rematch between Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili as well as the highly anticipated showdown pitting Justin Gaethje against Michael Chandler. Plus Muhammad will react to Khamzat Chimaev’s big win at UFC 267 and where he stands in the welterweight division. All this and more on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. the Writer.   Follow Belal Muhammad @bullyB170 Follow Damon Martin @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com 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 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 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. Welcome to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Back to the fighter versus the writer. I am your host as always. I am Damon Martin and today I am joined by one of the top welterweight fighters in the world and with a big welterweight title fight coming up this weekend at UFC 268, how could I not

talk to this man, the guy with the second best podcast out there after this one, of course. Top Weld-Wing contender himself, Bilal Muhammad. Bilal, welcome back. How are you? Good, man. I'm feeling good. I just got back from Trana, excited for this weekend, especially after the card we had last weekend.

I think that I don't know if this card could top it, but when you're looking at the fights, I'm excited. Yeah, absolutely. Now, before we get to the fight stuff, you were actually in a different kind of fight this weekend you were at a wedding which i know can get kind of there can be a fight sometimes you got to go to a wedding this weekend yeah you know Jared Gordon uh one of my best friends uh went to his wedding in Florida and you know they're Italian so literally like 90% of the wedding was just eating and I did not expect it I'm sitting for you having the appetizes and I'm like all right well no this is pretty

nice and I'm like scarf and all the food in there and all of a sudden 10 minutes later the waitress comes like what do you want your entree I'm like dude I just literally ate like three things of Poster tails, Pokey bowls, fish, and then she's asking for if I want steak, chicken, or Branzino. And I was like, all right, well, I'll take a steak. And then all of a sudden, like, 10 minutes later after that,

they're walking around with sliders and grilled cheese sandwiches. And I'm like, I can't breathe. I'm glad to get back to Chicago and at least get a jogging. Yeah, so let me restart the entry here. I'm here with middle-weight, Bilal Baham. I did get some training in when I was out there. I got training out there at Stanford. guy that got to get some good guys training with Brennan Allen middleway so yeah it was good maybe

maybe I'll make the move up yeah you never know you never know uh before we get to the OC 268 let me first ask how everything's with you of course uh you know a lot of movement the welterweight division right now and I know again you're right in the thick of it coming up to big win in your last fight uh where are you at in terms of what you got going on man we've been literally trying to find a fight for the last uh month uh I think we're we're close I'm hoping we'll get something news this week uh manager telling me about. So excited and I hope it falls through. So we get this going. Like I said, I just want to keep moving up and just keep the division rolling. My last fight really didn't get no injuries or anything like that. So I don't want to stay active. I'm one of those guys that

wants to stay active. I've had three fights this year. One really didn't really count. So if I get another one in before the end of the year, it would be perfect. Yeah, absolutely. And I know there's still a couple more cars to go before the end of the year. So it'd be awesome to get you in one more and then, you know, kind of start off 2022 in the right way, right? Yeah, exactly. for the beginning of this year was to get in the rankings and to fight a ranked opponent. And now I'm number nine in the world. So my goals are working out the way I planned it. Now one more before the end of year, I think it'll be perfect.

Then I'll be, I think after one more fight, then I'll be in that. All right, who's fighting next for the title? There's only three or four guys. And I'll be, my name will be in that list. Yeah. You've been in the UFC for a while now, man, but I got to say coming off your last fight, you've looked better than you've ever been. And I think that's kind of momentum you start building, right?

When you start getting into it. And that's when you want to have that. I mean, again, beating guys like Damian Maya, then you look, there's not that many guys in front of you. You're building that momentum. This is exactly where you want to be going into New Year, I imagine. Yeah, exactly. It's like the perfect spot for me,

beating a guy like Maya and far for the 85 title and the 70 title. And, you know, beating a guy like that, having that guy on my resume is a big thing because I've had that guy, you know, I've always watched them. And now it's finally where I fight a guy that I've watched it and I've respected for so long. And it's a different mindset. when you fight a guy like that. So now it's like, all right, well, now I know it can beat these guys.

I know I belong with these guys. I don't need a huge gym behind me or something like that where I don't come from a big background or Olympic wrestler or anything like that. And I show that I belong in there with these top guys. These guys are starting to realize who I am and how good I am. Absolutely. Before we get to this weekend's card, Bilal, let me ask you real quick. In your division, you just talked about the craziness of this last week's card.

And again, I know you were dealing with the wedding and everything. But did you get a chance to see Hamzaa Chamaa? He came back, and now he's the guy who's going to be, you know, getting in that top 15. I think that he had to earn it, and I think, you know, beating a guy like Lee Jing Liang is a big deal. Great win for him. I think until that, maybe, you know, a little bit quick to put him in that race just yet. But I want to get your opinion on Hamzlock coming off this weekend. I was excited for, honestly, you know, it was one of those things where when he had that COVID stand,

he was talking about retirement, I was like, oh, dang. Because being a competitor, being a fighter, you want to fight the top guys, you want to go against these guys that everybody thinks to the boogeyman and how good they are. And he showed it. I mean, when I'm thinking about it, I mean, Lee Jingling is really not the greatest grappler. And I knew that if Comza was going to come out, he could dominate him and pretty much grappling.

And, I mean, he did that. To go through four fights, I don't care who you're fighting against and to only get hit once. That's another level. But, you know, it's not one of those things where I have fans now, like, oh, all these guys are going to be afraid to fight him. I'm like, not really. I get excited to fight a guy like that.

I get excited to show that I belong in there with these top guys. I would want to fight a guy like that so I could be the one to stop that hype train because then all of a sudden you'll steal all of his hype. And it'll show that you're that guy now. Now you're that guy that nobody really thinks of me when they're like, oh, well, who's going to fight? Who's my first title? They're trying to give him the title shot next.

Just because he's winning so dominantly. I mean, and I understand it. I understand the business. I understand momentum. But I think he needs to fight a guy with better grappling, somebody that could defend takedowns and stand up with them. And me, I just defended 21 of Damia's 22's takedowns. And I'm a guy that can strike with you too and a guy that has gas tank for Dages.

I know that Magni's trying to call him out. But, I mean, Magnus really gets beat up against guys that grapple him. He got out grappled by Kiyas. He got out grappled by Maya. I'll grappled by RDA. So I don't think that would be a good matchup for. him style-wise for Comzaa would be just because he could showcase himself. But I think somebody like me or Gilbert Burns or even Lou Geh has really good

take down the fence. Somebody like that I think will work out perfectly. And I really prove if, all right, he needs a title shot next to him right after that fight. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, a guy like you, and again, I think, you know, you getting guys like, you know, the Wonder Boys of the world, the guys who are kind of ranked above you. I think that's what you deserve. And I think Kamslaz is going to come in behind you in the rankings. But that being said, like I said, I think if you ever do get that fight, whether it's

next or two fights down the road. It's got to be five rounds because your cardio, your gas tank is a huge weapon for you. And that's one thing we haven't seen him tested on yet. We've had so many first round. I know he went in the second round his first fight, but that was at 185. But I want to see him get pushed. I want to see what this

guy looks like in round four and five. And I think you'd be a guy that would push him there. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you know, obviously he looks so dominant. We've only seen a small picture of him. And now he's added the talking while fighting in the Kibib style. to it. So, like, it's exciting for fans and, you know, fans that don't really understand

MMA and just think that he's going to walk through everybody and kill everybody just because how easily he's winning. But, yeah, I think my style, stylistically, our styles match up very well. And to me, it's not like one of those things where I think I'm going to go in there and dominate him. But I think that I'll definitely give him a bigger fight than anybody's ever fought before. Yeah, absolutely. Well, but out this weekend, we got a big welterweight fight. The welterweight titles on the line. We'll get back to that in a second. We got a great overall card at UFC 268. So let's kick things off as we break down this card. We'll go top to bottom on the main card. Of course, at the start of the card, the main card, legend, icon. I don't know how many

words we can use to describe this guy. Frankie Edgar, one of the greatest fighters of all time, pound for pound, in my opinion, one the greatest pound for pound fighters of all time when you can win lightweight, featherweight, and bantway, doing all these things he's done. Taking on Chito Vera, who is an incredible striker, very diverse guy. This is a really interesting fight. So kind of give me your thoughts on this one and who you're picking. You know, Frank Jagger has literally been in there with the best of the best, fought the top guys in all the divisions.

And he's looked great. I mean, I know he got caught a couple times in his last couple of fights. When you're going against a guy like Sanhagen, you get caught flying me. And I think I saw somebody post about that, where it's like anybody could get caught, but if you get dominated for a three-round decision, then I'd rather, fighters would rather get caught than get dominated for three rounds. And, you know, him coming off a knockout, I just think that stylistically wise,

it's a good fight for him to go against a guy like Chido Barra, who has been successful without a takedowns in, can get controlled on the ground when he does get taken down. We saw when he fought Hosea Oval, the Hosea Alto took his back and held him down and controlled him the whole time. And you can tell he was getting a little bit frustrated during that time. So I think a guy like Frank Yager, who really come out wrestling you, taking you down,

I think that he'll be a problem for Chitouvera. Chitouvera has that style where he could pop up that knee or elbow. He's not going to be one of those just going to lay on his back. But I think that Frank Yeager will be able to control this and control the distance, take him down, control the time, and win a decision here. Yeah, I agree. I think Frankie, you know, I think where Frankie might struggle at Bantanway, like anyone in Bantanway, is when you get to that top three or four guys, there's no shame in losing to Corey Sanhagan.

There would be no shame in losing to a guy like, let's say, a T.J. Delishar, one of the other top guys to war. but I think Frankie is that guy. I think he is the top five or six in the world. He beat a Pedro Movio's who is as tough as they come. And that was a freaking war. He got caught with San Hagan. There's no shame in that.

I mean, San Hagan, again, he's a, you know, he's a monster. And I think his wrestling, and Frankie goes out there and wrestles and clenches. And we've seen Cheeto struggle a little bit in those situations. He saw, you know, we saw what Aldo did against him, you know, kind of pressuring him, not allowing Cheeto to fight his game. And Frankie's that guy. He's going to be in your face from the first second to the last. And if he goes out there, especially if he wrestled,

him. I think Frankie wins his fight. And also, let's be honest, man, this is a big opportunity for Frankie fighting in Madison Square Garden, close to home in Jersey. And the guy's a legend, like I said, I don't know if he'll be Bantleweight Champion. I don't want to put that out there and say he'll never do it. I don't know if he will, just because time might be against him a little bit right now. But I think there's still going to be those six, seven, eight ranked guys who are just never going to get past him. Like, I think that he's going to be kind of that roadblocked to that top five. Yeah, I mean, as I've seen period on this weekend, I'm like, I don't know who at Bandobe could really beat him right now.

So like, but for a guy like Frank Edgar, like you said, I think he's one of those guys that could, he's not at that level where he just needs those legendary fights where he needs to fight older guys, like a Diego Sanchez or something like that, that those guys, he still compete with these top 10, 15 guys. And I think he'll do well with a lot of these guys,

but it's just like you said, that upper excellent, that top five. Those are going to be very hard for him. And, yeah, I want to see him take that type of damage against those type of guys. You don't need that right now. He already established his name. He's been a champion before.

He's a legend. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, interesting, another fight that got on the main card here, which I think surprised a lot of people, but I think it actually will be a really fun fight is the matchup between Shane Burgos and Billy Quarantillo. Two really fun guys. Now, Shane, we got to be honest, he's coming off a couple of wars. I mean, you know, losing to Josh Emmett, there's no shame in that.

But then, you know, the fight with Edson Barboas, my God, like, those are the fights that take years off your career. And Billy Q, you know, Billy Q had the loss, you know, to Gavin Tucker comes back. gets a big win, big knockout in his last fight. This is a really interesting matchup because Burgos, like, I thought Burgos has that top 15 potential, but I also, I can't help but wonder, man, when you take that kind of a damage in a fight,

like I think, like I look at, like a Carlos Cond that legend, one of the greatest of all time, I think he, I don't think he was ever the same after the Robbie Lawler fight. Like, I think that just took a piece of his soul. Like, I think that fight was such a war.

I just don't think he ever came back quite the same. And I wonder, two fights in a row with Burgos, you know, and we're talking back-to-back battles with Emmett and Barbosa. I got a question like, man, like, how much more of that can you take? You need to a young guy, but how much more of that can you take? Yeah, exactly. And he's one of those guys, too, that drops his hands a lot, not afraid to take a hit to get a hit. His style is very exciting, like you said, because he's always in these wars.

He's not afraid to stand in the pocket with you with his hands down. But when you're going against the guys like Barbosa and Emmett that are, you know, know, they got power, power. And those type of powers, you know, every single fight, you're getting hit. You're just taking, you know, it's power out of your energy tools. And, like, your chin's not going to be there the same as it was the last fight, especially at that last fight. That knocker was so crazy where he got hit with Barossa.

Then he just, like, paused and all of a sudden he fell down. That was one of those crazy knockers. I mean, and I don't know, he seems like one of those guys that spars hard and has those crazy sparring sessions at the gym. he just doesn't seem like that guy that's going to be soft. He's not going to be one of those guys that touch bars at the gym because the way he fights, you can still, that's how he trains too. Quarantella, he looked good his last fight.

He's another guy that's not afraid of being a war. He makes a guy a lot of gas out, and he looks very strong his last fight. He looked like he put a lot of muscle on his last fight. And being in, I think both of their hometowns, New York, I think it's going to be exciting for both these guys. Quarantella, I know it's a big step up, fighting a guy like Shane Burgo. but I think you can do it.

I was excited about him. Last fight, I think he's getting better every single fight, and I think I'm going to give this one to Billy here. You know, and I'm kind of torn on this one because I'm worried about, you know, when a guy gets cracked the way he did, like it was like he got hit the off button. Like, you know, he got the pause button in the off button

in that Barbosa fight. And there's no shame at losing that to Barbosa, Josh Emmett. They're both great fighters, top 10 featherweights of the world. But you just wonder, like at what point, like I remember there was a point, Like I think it was after Roy Nelson, I want to say it was he got knocked out by Marc Hunt. Like, he just didn't quite have the same chin.

At some point, the chin gets cracked. And I wonder. But that being said, I still think Burgos has that top 15 ability. And I know Billy Q has that same kind of ability. But I'm leaning Shane Burgos in this one. I'm going to have faith that he bounces back from that last loss and kind of proves that he's still like a top 15 guy. He may not be ready for that top 10 yet. But I'm going to go to Burgos, but I got to be honest.

I'm very much hedging my bets here below because I just don't know, man. Like I said, that always worries me. When a guy goes through a couple words like that, like I always say this, and I mean it, when you say a guy is a great chin, I know people in MMA think that's a compliment. And it is to a certain extent, but then that also means you've had to get hit a bunch of times to prove you got a great chin. And I kind of believe in the mantra don't get hit. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. You don't want to have that, oh, man, this guy has so much heart. or this guy would sit there and walk through fire. It's like, oh, well, he had to walk through fire, and he had to show us and he'll get hit and stuff like that. Obviously, he's tough. Obviously, all fighters are tough, but I even tell guys that are coming up now

where they're sparring hard at practice, I'm like, you don't need to do that because you're taking years off your career getting hit like that. And then being in wars and, like, Demetia Johnson always used to say that, like, just fight smarter. Like, if you could add grappling it, so you could add a take down to it,

why would you want to get hit? Like, I fight smart. I know I can sit there and strike with the best of the best, but if I can take them down and wrestle with them and grapple with them, why wouldn't I want to do that? And I think Billy Q is going to be the one that's going to mix it up a little bit more. He has high volume.

So that's how I like Billy Q here. Yeah, I like it. Now, we talk about walking through the fire. The next fight is literally a fire fight. Justin Gatchy and Michael Chandler, I don't want to jinx anything, although I'm kind of jinxing it by saying this, if there was one fight on this planet that I said,

there's no way it's going to suck, whether it's 12 seconds or, or 12 minutes. There's no way this. I just can't believe this fight's not going to be amazing for as long as it lasts. I have a hard time believing it makes it to a decision. Although now that I've said that, I probably jinxed it and it's going to be a three-year-old fight.

But, man, like, this is such a good, like, this has got to be like the fan favorite fight of the card. Yeah, this is going to be the fan main event, I feel like, I know the mini event's amazing, but everybody's tuning in for this, right? This is like, this is a violence main event. And it's, man, I'm just so excited to see it. because both their styles match up, I think, really well.

I think that Gaetchi probably has the upper hand on maybe the power a little bit, but I think Chandler has the upper hand on the wrestling. And I think Chandler uses wrestling more than Gaichi uses wrestling. And I know everybody always said, oh, Gachi's wrestling is really good. And, you know, he went toe to toe with Jordan Burroughs and this and that. But we saw his last fight against Habib. When Habib took him down, I know Habib's, the goat, but you still got really controlled pretty easily, and he didn't have anything

on the ground once he got taken down. You know, he's the guy when we see him. Not a lot of guys attempted to take him down, but when he did, it would be like a scramble. So when you're going against a guy like Chandler, who does have that take-down ability, and he has said that he's, I'm going to, I'm going to stand in there, I'm going to bang, I'm going to walk through violence, this, this, and this. I think it's going to end up being, he's going to go into resting a little bit because

you got to be smart, fighting a guy like Gaichi, we've seen him get a little bit tired, later in fights. I know he still had late round knockouts, but he does get a little bit tired. His hand drop a little bit. And we saw before that could have a beat fight. He had a lot of first round knockouts. So maybe Chandler goes out there,

drags him to deep waters. Maybe Chandler can win. But for me, my pick is going to be Gachey finishing this fight. We saw Chandler get clipped with Oliveira. And not trying to say that it's chint suspect or anything like that, but I think that Gatji hits harder than Olivera. Yeah. I think the problem that the Chandler has a little bit, in my opinion,

is that he does like to kind of stand in the pocket and wing punches. And, you know, there's a lot of guys who can't do that with a guy like Chandler because he does have that one punch knockout power. But Gaichi is the last guy on the planet you want to play that game with. Like, that is a guy who he's just a human damage machine. Like, that's what he does. Like, when I remember talking to Dustin Porre after he fought him, he's like, I feel like I went through a car crash.

It's just my entire body hurt Like my legs hurt my body Everything hurts And like you don't even even Khabib talked about Like it didn't seem like Gaichi really did much damage to Khabi But even Khabib said You know I've never been hit harder Like he's just that's just what Gai Chi does

And I feel like I agree If Chandler actually mixes things up And throws in a takedown to maybe throw Gachie off his game a little bit I think that's his path to victory But if he just goes out there and starts trading punches and kicks with Justin Gachi, I think that's a losing proposition for, you know, 98% of the fighters who aren't Dustin Porey.

Dustin Porey's kind of the one guy who was able to, like, stand and tray with Gachy and got the better of him. But you just don't. That's just not a winning game plan against the guy like Justin Gaichi. So I agree. I'm going to pick Gaichi.

It kind of breaks my heart because, you know, Chandler has a way to win this fight. I truly believe Chandler has a way to win this fight. He just can't go out there and stand in front of Justin Gachie. and I have a bad feeling that knowing the anticipation for this fight, knowing how much people want to see this one, I feel like Chandler wants to give a little bit of a show, and I think that's going to backfire on him.

Yeah, like, man, if you're thinking about it, like the way Chandler's UFC career went, you know, he went out there quick knockout against Hooker, then that first round against Barbosa, like, oh, this guy is about to be champion for sure. And then all of a sudden, he gets knocked out in the second round, and then now you have to go against a Justin Geachie. And like you said, I don't know if it's going to be one of those,

very, you know, once you get to the UFC, you want to, you want all that hype, you want the fans to love you and always want to watch you fight. You're talking about this is a violence game and this is a violence mainly Ben and me and Gates are going to go through fire with each other. Like, you don't want all that hype to get to your head and make it a war when there's a path to victory. It's a way easier path to victory than having to freak and go through 100 Gaichi leg kicks, 100 Gaichi uppercuts, 100 Gaichi hooks.

And you just have to withstand all of that when you can sit there, shoot on a take him down a little bit, let him get a little bit more tired. Next time, faint a shot, go for a big overhand right, catch him. Hopefully he goes down. But, yeah, I don't know, I think that we saw Hooker when Hooker fought Chandler. He went out there with that low kick game plan and he tried to go with that low calf kick. But Hooker was doing that as he was backing away. When Gagey goes for low kicks, he's doing it right in front of you, right in your face,

and he's having you back up the whole time. That's why I think it's going to be the problem for Chandler. Yeah, and I was just talking about the detriment of having a great chin and here I am about to pay a compliment to a guy with a great chin. But Gachi's a guy, you know, he's a guy you got to out volume him. You got to just basically beat him, beat him, beat and chip it away. And then you can put away like what Porre did. I mean, Porre had to chip away at him for whatever three rounds to finally put him away.

And I think that's the way you've got to approach a Gachi fight. If you're going to fight him on the feet, you cannot just go there and swing punch for punch with him and expect to survive. I just don't, I just don't think that's a winning strategy. And because Gachi is so good with those leg kicks, he's in. he's so durable that, you know, you can't guarantee you're going to hit him with one shot and he's going to go out. And I think, I think Chandler can. Chandler has one-punch knockout power. And maybe he'll surprise. He could land around on the button and Gaitchie goes face first and that's it. But again, both guys have that same kind of power. I'm just betting on the guy

who is known for that, known for the, known for the ability to just like, if you stand in the pocket and trade shots with him, again, chances are you're going to be the guy going down. And I just think that as good as Chandler is, I don't think he quite has like a Porre's style of boxing. I don't think he has that kind of fast hands. Because Porre is an incredible boxer. I just don't think he has that kind of, that kind of ability to just stand there and trade with Gaichi. But I agree with you.

If he wrestles him, if he goes out there and throws in a taketown, makes Gaichie guess a little bit, makes him work for, you know, get back up on his feet, things like that. Like, I think it's a winnable fight for him, but I just have a bad feeling he's not going to, he's not going to go out there and try to make this a grappling match. Yeah. So now in the co-main event, this is an interesting one, because we got the strawweight title going back on the line between Rose Nami Yunus and Zhang Wei Li. Now, the last time these two met, Rose dispatched Zhang inside of two minutes.

Head kick, knockout over. Zhang has since changed up her training camp. She's out in Arizona training with Triple C himself, Henry Sehudo, and his camp. She's made some changes. Of course, Rose still out there in Colorado working with the mad scientist himself, Trevor Whitman. Uh, this is an interesting one, Bilal, because while it is a rematch, it's a weird rematch, because we didn't really see much in the first fight. Yeah, it was one of those weird fights where you're like, Rose knocked her out and finished her pretty easily. And it wasn't like, it was like a fluke knockout.

It was like, she set it up. Uh, so I didn't understand really the rematch. Uh, but I mean, I'm excited to see it. Obviously, uh, anytime either of these women fight, it's exciting. Uh, way Lee's one of those. I don't know. I think coming off that loss, I think maybe she needed a little bit more time

or a different fight first because she switched to cancel a little bit. And I feel like she did a lot of blaming that fight where it was this or she got lucky or this. And then it wasn't like I made a mistake myself. I didn't read the high kick and I got caught with it. You know, anybody could get caught, but I feel like hers was just blaming.

And when you're a champion and you're blaming that you're loss on somebody else, We saw it like with Yante Wilde where he blamed on his coaches, why he threw the towel in, and then it happened the third fight. Same thing happened just because Fury is way better. I think that's going to be the same kind of a fight we're going to see with Rose here.

I think Rose is just better. She's so much smoother on her feet. She's got a really good jab, really good striking. She knows how to pick her shots the right way. Way Lee is one of those. She's tough. She knows how to bra. But I think that she's taking this too personally.

I think she's taking it as that was all luck. She's going to come out there too hard. I think it's going to leave her open for more shots from Rose. And I know your training was Henry Trudeau. He's a champion, but I don't think they had enough time together yet. That's why I feel like if they would have did a camp together for a smaller fight that wasn't a title fight. And we saw how she did with him then. Now it's just putting too much pressure on Henry now.

She's fighting for a rematch for the title. And, you know, Henry has to do his little coaching thing now. So it's putting pressure on him and more pressure on her because you're, you blame down your other coaches. And you change camps. you switched to this guy, so you're thinking that this guy's going to be your answer, when you really haven't worked with him yet, you don't know how he's going to be fight day, you don't know how he's going to be fight weak, working with a new team, new guys. Yeah, I think that's what I like to call the overreaction to a loss.

You know, she had a bad loss and she's kind of overreacted and like, I got to change camps, I got to do this, I got to do that. And at the end of the day, she got, I mean, Rose talked about it. She saw, you know, Whaley's tendencies and she set up the head kick and she hit her with it. I mean, there was no accident there. It wasn't like they got into a big exchange. She got caught. She was very, very tactical the way she talked about setting up that head kick.

And I think Rose, man, I don't think she gets enough credit for how freaking good she is. When you think about her record, you think about what she did, two wins over Yohanna, which is no joke. She was beating Androj. And she got dropped on her head. I mean, there's no, you know, that was a freak occurrence. And I'm not trying to take away Androes win, but that was a freak occurrence. She was winning that fight. The rematch was a war.

Don't get me wrong, but Rose still won the fight. And then to go out there in headkick, Zhang, I just, I don't know, like, I don't know if anyone at Strawwood's going to beat her, you know, right now. I would have said, you know, two years ago, it said Tatiana Suarez was a person, you know, and I would say was a future champion. Unfortunately, she's had all the injuries and everything, but, yeah, I don't know. I just, I think Rose is just going to be stylistically a bad matchup. She's not going to go in there and just start trading punches with her the way that Yonna did. And, you know, Zhang can kind of depend on her power just to kind of get her through those. situations like she did against Joanna.

And I just think Rose is, Rose is a technician, man. She's really good on the ground. She's really technical in her stand-up. And I don't think she's just going to stand out there and stand and just trade and bang with, with Wei Lee. So I like Rose to win this fight.

I got to be honest, I think she gets a finish here. I think she can finish her again. I don't think it'll be a minute and whatever it was the last time with the head kick, but I think she can finish her again. I just think stylistically, this is just a bad matchup for for Whaley, and I don't know. And I agree with you. You know, the overreaction stuff kind of wonder.

I wonder, like, man, you change camps, you moved. You're, you know, you're kind of playing the blame game. Like, all the wrong things. She's done, like, in terms of, like, anticipation, she's done all the wrong things to make me think she can win this fight. Yeah, you know, when you're really, you had a whole country behind you and everybody was looking at you, like, the champion, you're the best of the best, and you go out there,

and you go out there, I understand that, like, you want to go back to that. You want to show you people that you belong there. But it's just a, I think style is to get bad. matchup and you know you got Trevor Whitman who's been the mastermind and you've seen what he's done to guys career like Usman went from just being a wrestler to now he's a striker knocking out guys and I think that's just working with a guy like Trevor Whitman

who's just doing these little small things working on small details with them and he I think Trevor finds tendencies from their opponents and he exploits their weaknesses and gets these guys out that's why even with the with this fight I think it's going to be another knock-up like you said, to finish. And I think it's going to be one of those where Rose outclassed there, too. Yeah, I agree.

All right, let's talk about the main event, the one that you, of course, have a vested interest in because eventually you want to get to one of these guys who's going to be the champion, and that is right now Kamaro Usman against Kobe Covington. They fought two years ago. On that night, Kamaro knocked him out in the fifth round, broke his jaw. It was a great, crazy, fun fight up to that point. You know, Kobe had some moments. Camaro had a lot of moments.

And then Kamaro obviously had the better power shots, a couple different knockdowns before getting the knockout in the fifth round. Since that time, Colby's only fought once. He had the winner of retiring. Woodley, no shame there, great win. But again, I don't know his tire in the same tyrant he was three years ago. We can ask about that. And then Camaro, of course, has gone on an incredible run, beating Gilbert Burns,

beating Jorge Mazadol twice and knocking him out viciously earlier this year. But, wow, I got to be honest, man. Like, I'm excited for this fight because the first one was great. It was a great fight. but and I've said this to Gilbert Burns I talked to him a couple weeks ago and I said this to Vicente Luca another guy in your division

I talked to him a few weeks ago and I said nothing that I've seen since the first fight has made me believe anything other than Usman has just gotten that much better and I don't know that Colby has

changed his game enough to where he's figured out a way to beat Kamar Usman Yeah that's That's exactly it I think honestly I feel like this is going to be even this is going to be a quicker finish for Usman.

We've seen his last couple of fights, how his striking looked, and you're going against really good strikers, and we saw him in bad spots against Gilbert Burns, and to show him championship mentality, stay tough, and then finish him in the next round with a jab. Then he comes out the following fight against Mazvedo, finish him with a big overhand right,

and Madsvada has never been, I don't think he's ever been knocked out like that before. And striking-wise, you expect Mazvola to stand there, with the best of the best in the division. You know, we've seen guys like Wonderboy not be able to finish Mads at all on the feet. And to get finished by a guy like Usman, it just shows how much better

Usman's getting. And he has that championship mentality where he's trying to get better every single fight and he stays in the gym. I know Kobe's played the whole, I deserve the title shot after beating. Woodley, I know that the UFC tried to make this fight because the first fight was so good, but I just think that was a whole

different Usman. I think Usumon in that fight, his stand-up is way more sloppier. We've seen him. I think in that first fight, he was switching to Southpaw a lot, and he was getting hit with the overhand right, a lot in that fight. I was like, why is he switching to Southpaw? So it was kind of like one of those things where he was playing with Southpaw, and he was getting hit a lot with this, so his defense wasn't there.

But now when he goes to Southpaw, you can sell his defense there. He's a lot more comfortable with it just because he's had that case time trying to play with those different tools. And, man, I just think he's going to be able to dominate him. The only passenger victory, I think, for Kobe is coming out wrestling. You know, you have that gas tank that you say is the best of the best. end of the division and there's not a lot of guys that keep up with you. You didn't shoot one time in that

first fight. You have to shoot this fight. I know you're going to have scrambles. He's probably not going to be able to take him down, but you just have to attempt it. You have to show him something different. Because if you go out there this fight and try to go stand punch for punch, kick for kick for him, I think Usman's going to knock him out. But if he goes out there, make it a couple scrambles, maybe you catch him one time,

take him down. And if you're a guy like Usman who has never been taken down before and you have a guy like Kobe on top of you, it's going to mess up your mentality. We saw kind of like John Jones when he took down Kormier, and then their first fight, and Kormier that last round just wanted to take him down

just to say that he got to take down against John Jones when it really didn't make no sense. So I think it comes out to Kobe coming out. He has high volume, but he needs to add and take downs. He needs to attempt him, go for them, pull a guard,

just scramble with him a little bit. Ousman's not really good at holding guys down. Guys are usually good at getting right back up when he gets taken out from him. So if Colby does end up getting stuck underneath them, I think he'll be able to get back up to his feet. But he's going to have to make it a dollar fight like that. You can't sit there and do the same thing in the first fight,

stand up with them because I think it'll get knocked out a lot quicker. Yeah, and I don't think, here's the thing. I think Colby, you know, Colby's a tremendous wrestler. There's no doubt about that. It was an All-American in college and all those kind of things. He's really good in the clinch. We saw what he did against Woodley against the cage. But honestly, and I'm just being, you know, again, just looking at the matchup,

I think Uspin's the better wrestler. I think he is stronger in the clinch. when Uspin, I mean, again, I think people forget because he's had a couple of knockouts in a row, but like that was kind of his game. He would put you against the cage and kind of mall you, you know, like what he did to Woodley. You know, he'll put you there, put you down, and beat you from there. And his wrestling is chill to him in and I don't think Camaro has forgotten that. I don't think he's forgotten his wrestling.

He's just kind of added to his to his recipes lately. He's just added to his arsenal with the striking with working with Trevor Whitman. And I agree with you wholeheartedly. I just, Kobe on the feet is a volume guy. I don't think he can use that. game plan against a guy like Usman. I don't think he can out wrestle Camaro. I don't think that's a game plan.

I mean, I think showing him that early at least gives him a little bit of a potential advantage if he can actually get Camaro down. I just don't know that he can. I mean, I just, I don't know that he has that game about him. And I don't think, and again, I know this is MMA. Anything can happen so anybody can get knocked out. But, you know, Colby has never shown one punch knockout power ever. He's a volume guy.

and I don't think he can out volume Camaro over five rounds. I just don't. And Camaro's never shown like he's got terrible cardio. It's not like Camaro's a guy who's like faded latent fights or anything. I've said it all along and I believe it. I think this fight goes similar to the last one, except that I think it's more one-sided. I think Oussman will more dominate this fight.

And I think third round knockout, fourth round knockout. I don't know that it makes a fifth round. I think he puts him away. kind of puts Colby behind him once and for all. Yeah, I think I'm going to go with a second round knockout, honestly. I think that's going to be, it's going to be a walking apart for Usomai. I feel like, I mean, I gave you what I thought Kobe should do, but like I said, I think that's still not going to affect Usman in any way.

I think Husband's, it's going to be an easy win for him. We saw what he did in his rematch against Mazba, how much better he got in that fight. I think he's just going to be even better in this fight. Yeah, I'm excited. I think that Usman's and still. Yeah. I agree.

And you know what? I know this was the thing when Anderson Silva was championed in middleweight. You know, when I talked to guys in middleweight at that time, they're always like, you know, in a weird way you kind of root for that. Because when you get to your own title shot, you want to fight the best guy in the world. You want to fight the guy who was the boogeyman, as you mentioned, you know, kind of the guy who can't be beaten. And I'm sure there's at least a small party you blow out when you say when I get my title shot, I want to be the guy to fight a guy like Kamar Usman. I want to be the guy who's on a five, six, seven title defense streak, whatever it is when you get to him. because that makes it that much bigger.

Look at how much, you know, Weidman got, you know, beating Anderson, how big that was for his career because he was the guy who beat the goat. I'm sure there's a small part of you, I'm sure a title shot, it wouldn't matter to you who it comes against, but I'm sure there's a small party that says,

I want to be the guy to beat Kamar Usma. I want to be the guy to beat, you know, the greatest Welchway, whatever it is. Yeah, exactly. Like, I sit there and I'll go on, when I do cardio, I watch Scouts because I want to still, I'm always measuring.

I'm always analyzing what I can do here, what I can do there, what I can do with this. So, like, that's the guy I'm always going to be watching no matter what. And that's the guy that I want to fight. I don't want one of these other guys to take that from him. I don't want one of those guys to take the belt from him and then me have to fight those guys.

Obviously, I would, but I'd rather fight Oushman. I want him to be the champion. I want him to be on a 20-fight winning streak when I get to him. So when I do take that from him, I know that I had to walk through fire to get there and I earned that victory against a guy that they thought could be the goal, the best of welter rate of all the time. when he's in discussion with the guy like GSP, I would want to measure myself up against the guy like that.

When you get into the sport, it's to be the best in the world. And I want to fight the best guys in the world. And I've always thought I could compete with these guys, no matter what, my style is compete with any of these guys in the division. And especially with the champion, I feel like match-up wise. I feel like I would match up well with him. And I'm just hoping that he's still there when I'm up there. And he doesn't go up to mid-of-weight or he doesn't just pull a Khabi and retire earlier or anything like that.

Yeah, absolutely. Before I let you go, Blah, of course, your podcast, I mentioned one of the best in the world. I always love your podcast. Remember the show. You have such a fun format with your podcast, which I love. It's something totally different, which I love and enjoy. And also, of course, beyond your own fight girl, you started doing the analyst thing with ESPN, which, again, I know I've told you this, you know off air, what do you want to call it. But fantastic job, man.

You've become a phenomenal analyst, and I hope you're going to get more of those gigs because I think you've done a tremendous job. And I know you talked about maybe getting in one more fight this year, but I'm hoping you're going to be. be back behind the desk before too much longer too. I appreciate that, really means a lot. Yeah, I'm actually going to be down there next week in Vegas working out there behind the desk. Yeah, I love that stuff. I love watching fights and just staying involved. Like I said, even when I'm not fighting, just to still be able to work and talk about

fights. When I'm bored, when I'm in between practices, I'm always watching fights no matter what. So now that my coach always told me, like, dude, you know all these guys that nobody knows about. And you don't even know, I don't even know this guy's name, but you know who he is, who he fought. And at some point that they're useless. Ramayson is going to mean something and now it's finally paying off it's it goes to the show with your nickname you always remember the name right exactly I love it well belial thank you again for doing this man I really appreciate it enjoy the fights this week and thank you so much for doing the show with me today and I look forward to hearing about your next fight look forward to seeing you back in action and

look forward to chat with you again soon as always sure bro thank you man all right talk to you soon Have you on, bro. Bye-bye. There he is. Bilal Mohammed, one of the top welter weights in the world, getting ready to watch another great well-to-weight, actually two great welter weights, of course, with Kamar Usman and Colby Covington this weekend.

I want to say a big thank you, as always for everyone tuning in to the Fighter versus the Rider. We appreciate it. Make sure you check us out on all of your favorite podcast, platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, and, of course, over on MMAFighting.com. We'll see you next week with another edition of the fighter versus the writer.

Thanks for tuning in, and we will see you then. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.