MMA Fighting - UFC 315 Timeline: Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Before Belal Muhammad defends the UFC welterweight title for the first time against Jack Della Maddalena in the main event of UFC 315, check out MMA Fighting’s UFC 315 Timeline to look back on how both fighters got to their championship bout this Saturday at Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠@mikeheck_jr⁠ Follow E. Casey Leydon: ⁠@ekc 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

When I got a great deal on a great gift at Winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. Welcome aboard Air Canada Rocky's vacation here we come Whoa is this economy Free beer, wine and snacks

Sweet Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land And with live TV I'm not missing the game It's kind of like I'm already on vacation Nice Air Canada Nice travels

Wi-Fi available to AeroPlan members on equip flights sponsored by Bell Conditions apply see Air Canada.com to the Vox Media Podcast Network. MMA fighting presents timeline. Bala Muhammad versus Jack Della Madalena. July 7th, 2016. UFC Fight Night 90, Dosanjos versus Alvarez, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 9-0 Balaamahmahamid makes his UFC debut against welterweight striker, Alan Joban. Joban wins by decision, dropping Muhammad to 9-1. The fight is awarded fight-eat-o-hamehaping. of the night honors. Mohamed would return to the cage the following September and defeat Augusto Montaño by third round ground and pound TKO at UFC Fight Night 94 Jorge versus Johnson in Hidalgo, Texas. November 12, 2016, UFC 205 Alvarez versus McGregor, New York, New York. Muhammad is booked on the undercard of the Blockbuster UFC event at Madison Square Garden against Vicente Lucay. Balaah Muhammad weighs in at 170 pounds.

He was originally supposed to fight another New York foreign fighter. Lyman Good. Lyman Good pulled from the fight due to potential Usada violation. So now he will be fighting Vicente Lucke on Saturday night. Muhammad suffers his first finished loss of his career as Lucke wins by TKO a little over a minute in round one. The loss drops Muhammad's UFC record to one and two. I thought it was going to be three rounds because Bel-O-Muhamed, he's a tough guy. I saw his first fight in the UFC with Alan Joba. He was knocked down four times and came back. So

I was ready to go three rounds. I mean, he's a tough guy and my hand connected and I hit hard and he couldn't get up. So it was, it worked out for me. February 11th, 2017. UFC 208, Holm versus Durandami, Brooklyn, New York. Muhammad returns to the Big Apple and on super short notice to face Randy Brown in Brooklyn. Muhammad, the betting underdog, wins by decision. July 8, 2017, UFC 213, Romero v. Whitaker, Las Vegas, Nevada. Bala Muhammad is booked in his fifth UFC fight against Canadian striker Jordan Meehan. Muhammad wins by decision.

I'm one of those guys that get stronger toward the end, later round, so I knew that anybody I go against the going to fade whenever they're going against me in the later rounds, I'm always going to have more energy to them. But I can see it in his eyes when his coach was yelling something, and he's not really executing with the coach's yelling. So I saw, I had him. So I just knew that I just needed work to finish a little more.

Muhammad would follow this victory up with the split decision victory over Tim Means at UFC fight night 121, Bardum versus Taibora, in Australia. And a unanimous decision victory over chance for encounter at UFC Fight Night 131, Rivera v. Marais, in Utica, New York. January 19th, 2019, UFC on ESPN Plus 1, Zahuto v. Dilleshaw, Brooklyn, New York. Muhammad is booked once again to fight in New York, this time against heavy-handed striker Jeff Neal. Neil defeats Muhammad by decision, snapping Muhammad's four-fifes. fight win streak. April 13th, 2019, UFC 236 Holloway versus Porriere 2, Atlanta, Georgia. Balaah Mohamed is set to face the 17 and 4 Curtis Millinder.

Muhammad wins the fight by decision. This is now five of your last six. Where do you feel like you fall in this division? Man, honestly, I keep saying I want to fight the rank guys. None of these ranked guys want to take fights. All these guys are using their ranking as a way to turn down fights. But like me, man, I'm ready to fight anybody. Like, people are telling me, why did I take the Jeff Neal fight? Because I want to fight these exciting guys. I want to fight these up-and-comers.

I want to show that I'm the best in the world. So I want to fight all the best guys in the world. And whether I come out on top or the bottom, I still think I'm the best in the world. I still think I'll be at the end of the day. I won't be one of the best to ever walking that cage. It's more frustrating just because the guys are just used rankings as an excuse not to fight.

Like, in the old days, if you're on a streak, you're going to fight a guy on a streak. If you're, like, rankings don't matter in the old days. Like, oh, this guy's on a three-fight streak. All right, let's fight this guy in a five-fight streak. Bam, that's a great fight. Or these two guys are exciting fighters. Let's put them together.

Nowadays, you call a guy, wait, what's his ranking? I don't want to fight them, man. That's not a good, that's not a smart fight for me. Everybody's making, trying to think about it too much in a business standpoint, man. Fans like fights. Be a fighter, man. If you're a real fighter, you'll fight anybody any day. Me, you call me, I'm ready to go.

I answer the phone. Pack my mouthpiece and ready to go. September 7th, 2019, UFC 242, Habib versus Poria, Abu Dhabi. Balaamu Hamid is booked in his first international fight. In Abu Dhabi, opposite Japanese fighter, Takashi Sato. Muhammad wins impressively by rear naked choke in round three. The stoppage victory helps Muhammad take home his second performance bonus of his UFC run.

It showed me that I'm on a bigger stage than I thought I was at first. You know, it's a, it's a huge thing out there, and I have a voice. So I want to be able to start using that more now. And I feel like I'm starting to become a household name where a lot more people all around the world are going to start realizing who I am. I feel like this was a statement win. I knew I needed to get it finished to make it a statement win. And that finish said it.

So I knew I was going to go out there and put on a show for the fans, the beautiful crowd. And like you said, they didn't put me in open workouts. They didn't put me on the main car. I made my own open workout. I went to the mall. I had fans lining up to take pictures with me. so I did my own thing. I'm not going to sit there and pout and be like, oh, man, poor me, poor me. I'm going to go out there and make my own fan, make my own time, go out there, get on social media,

and then get my own name out there. I don't need the UFC to push my name out there. I'll push my own name out there, and then the UFC would start hopping on the bandwagon with me. Muhammad would follow that victory up with a unanimous decision over Lyman Good at UFC Fight Night, Blades v. Volkov at the UFC Apex. The following February, Muhammad would go on to defeat Diego Lima by unanimous decision at UFC 258 Usman v. Burns inside the apex.

So then as a welterweight, what do you make of someone like Hamzad, who's 3 and O, I think he fought a middleweight and then a welterweight who's usually a lightweight and then another middleweight, and now he's sitting at 15 at Welterweight all of a sudden. And you're obviously fought a welterweight your whole career. What do you think of when you see that?

That's what I'm saying. That's the game we're in right now. It's like whoever picks up that momentum faster. So like it's all about momentum in this game. Who could put the best performances together the fastest? That's the guy who's going to get picked up. You know, like he's hot right now. Well, he was hot.

But now he's like sizzling off because, you know, you know, I hope he gets better. I feel, feel of the guy, you know. He was riding a good streak. They gave him a freak on Leon Edwards. But this sport's all about momentum. It's all about what have you done for me lately. And he was that hot guy right now. So now that he's going to be out for a while.

so now somebody else needs to step in and i want to be that new welts way that they were talking about them oh who's gonna be the champion and i was seeing freaking hamza in there and i'm like 2021 and i'm like yo i need to be on that list that's what i want to be i want to be that guy if i have to go through every single one of them one by one i'll do it man i want these guys keep underestimating me march 13th 2021 ufc fight night edwards versus muhammad las vegas nevada alahmahmah is booked in his first ufc main event and is set to face the 8th 18 and 3 Leon Edwards as Muhammad steps in on short notice. Not a lot of people want to fight you, Leon, let alone fight you on short notice.

Were you surprised that Bilal took the fight on short notice, and do you think it's a smart move on his part? I weren't surprised. It's just for a mumful girl, so he's in shape, you know, and it's his first main event. So it's a big opportunity for him to step up and fight a guy like me. So I weren't surprised, really. I think the time, the short camp for him, he's probably bad for his for orthodox on Southport and I'm totally a different fighter from the last guy he fought and I've been preparing

hairstyle for the last six months so I'm looking forward to it and can't wait. Yeah, you know, there's not no bad blood or anything like that but like I always say, man, whenever I'm fighting, you should always be rooting for me because I'm the way better guy, the way nicer your guy and I'm a lot funnier than him. And I just have a better personality. Like, who doesn't want to see the funny guy win? But no, in the end, like, I feel like this is going to be a great fight. And the better man that's going to come out winning is going to be the one that's going to take off next.

That's one that this is a huge fight because the guy who wins this, their life's going to change. Because anybody already promised the title fight to him if he wants to spectacularly. So if I win, I'm going to get that title fight. I'm going to take that title fight. and then all the people that were torn between me or him, they're all going to be jumping on this bandwagon. Yeah, I mean, in the end, like, we're prize fighters. These guys don't, these guys are forgetting about that, man.

When you're sitting there on the smaller circuits and you were dreamed about making it to the UFC, that was your goal to make it through UFC, you took any fight that was a funny. You're willing to fight anybody. And you're sitting there fighting for peanuts. Now that you're in the UFC, you're getting a little more money. Like, you're forgetting what you were in this game for from the beginning.

to be the best, to be the champion. And to be the best, you have to beat the best, and you have to fight the best guys, all the best guys. Everybody's nowadays, they're sitting there picking and choosing who they want to fight, the right move, the right mode, the right guy to take, the right timing to take the fight. For me, I could be anybody in this vision.

I know I'm good enough to be anybody in this vision. I know I could be a champion in this division. So that's why I'm willing to say yes to anybody. So I'm not afraid of fighting anybody. After a competitive first round, the fight ends with an accidental eye poke by Edwards early into round two. The fight is ruled a no contest.

Man, honestly, literally, I thought I was blind. I thought I was like, I was like moving my eye around, you know, when you're trying to move your eye around, and I literally couldn't see nothing but black, and I tried to close my other eye, and just like hope I could see something, and I couldn't see absolutely nothing. And then, like, literally, it was more so from there,

it was like, I knew the fight was gonna be, over and that that's honestly what broke my heart the most because like literally like you know that's where you work your whole career for to get to that moment and my life literally could have changed with that fight I could have beat him and we could have been fighting for a title next you know like that's life changing that was a life changing moment for me and my family a lot of things could have changed and like it literally all was just like snatched away with a freaking eye poke and I was like I got I didn't really I was really over really thinking about, man, what the fuck is the matter with my eye?

Like, I don't care, but it was just like, I knew the fight was going to be over. And that's like, that's literally like what, like, shattered my dreams type thing. That's honestly what, like, pissed me off the most just because he was like looking past it, not worried about it. At, you know, at that moment, he was like, felt bad, but then, like, he looked past, like, I could have been sitting there in the hospital blind and my career could have been over and he wasn't even thinking about it. But, yeah, like, he's sitting there going on like a, he was doing, like a press tour,

like he freaking won the fight. you know, I'm back. I need the title flight acting. Like, that's the thing. He thinks like he's owed all this stuff. And that's why I feel people like do not like them. But like I said, he's the one who literally committed to follow. He's the one who was warned.

And he's the one who messed up. So like out of like man to man, out of respect, if you're a freaking real fighter, like you would be like, well, I messed up. Let me own up to it. Here, I'll give you your rematch. And like you said, Dana White literally said, if he beats me, he gets the title shot. Well, the title's already on the line with somebody else. So you obviously need a fight unless you're going to sit out another 600 days.

But like this fight literally makes the most sense because we literally had a fight. It was unfinished business. Dana said you win, you get the title shot. So why wouldn't you want to take this fight? You want to sit there and train for somebody else, look at somebody else. But this fight honestly makes the most sense if you're really thinking about it. For me, like I said, I look at stuff realistically, and I'm not sitting there trying to sit there and blow my own,

to my own hornaries like that where I feel like I deserve this or I deserve that. Obviously, before this week happened, obviously I wasn't in the spot to fight Leon Edwards or to be in that top five, fight a top five guy. But I stepped up, I took the fight on three-witch notice. Nobody else was willing to step up and fight a main event, a five-round fight train after coming off a fight. I did all of that.

I'm the one of did that. So I earned this spot. I earned this rematch just because I was literally the only one that stepped up. And it was like taken out of my hands from a foul that he committed. June 12, 2021, UFC 263 Adasanya versus Vittori 2, Glendale, Arizona. Still riding a four-fight win streak, Muhammad is set to face former title contender and grappling legend Damien Maya. he's still a huge name, a great name, big name, and he's a legend, respected by all fighters.

And to have a guy like that on my resume before he retired is going to be great. And like literally, you know, you have a million people, oh, he's 42, yada, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I never his career. But he's literally three and one out of his last four. And he literally almost beat Gilbert Burns. He had him in a bad spot, mounted him, took his back. So it's like, he's still dangerous. So I'm not looking past him. I we can't have you up here without bringing it up a lot's going on overseas I think you're

probably the the kind of the face of in the UFC for like speaking out about what's happening in Palestine and everything so has that been a distraction all to you with people approaching you or even in your mindset being on what's going on over there um you know it's it's it's one of those things where it's like you literally get the press just going out social media because you see it and that that's where you get the real news is from social media nowadays um but for me it just It motivates me because it tells me that I'm fighting for something more, knowing that those people are looking up to me and knowing that, like, it went for me is a one for them.

So I just want to give these people something to cheer about, something to be happy about, whether it's for one day or one week, that I know that my one is their one. Muhammad soundly dominates the aging veteran by decision. Who's next after guy like demon? I mean, I was hoping Diaz would have knocked out Leon, so I would have got that rematch. But now obviously I want something that makes sense.

I want to look upward. I'm thinking definitely somebody in the top 10. I would definitely want that Vincenti Lucke fight back. So if I get that one, that would work out perfectly. I know you had to get stets shit up because it took you a little bit, but you did get to watch this fight. What was your thoughts on this fight? My thoughts on that, I would have broken.

He was ready to break in that fifth round. And that was Diaz playing 90% of the rest of the fight. Like me, I would have stayed in his face the whole time. I would have brokenly on for sure. December 18th, 2021. UFC fight night, Lewis versus Docis, Las Vegas, Nevada. Muhammad is set to face top-ranked veteran striker and two-time welterweight title challenger,

Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. The betting underdog uses his superior grappling skills and wins a workman-like unanimous decision. Another upset in this one, and a fairly big upset at this, one that none of us called, And I think if we're being honest, I think an upset that none of us even really expected. You had Balal Muhammad going out there and just dominating Stephen Thompson, putting the wood to him, pillar to post. It was never close.

Fight was never in doubt. You had 30-25s on the board. 30-26 is just total domination. You had seven take-downs of zero, nearly 12 minutes of controlled time in a 15-minute fight. Wow, man. Like, Balal-Mohamaan has been waiting for his big breakout moment. And I think we finally just saw it. Jose, what do you make of what is easily the biggest winner of this guy's career?

Caught me by surprise. I think I picked, if my words were correct, I thought Stephen Thompson was going to cruise to a, like, what did I say? Like 10, 10, 9, 10, 9, 10, 9, 30, 27 across the board. I think I referenced like, well, Muhammad wins a lot of decisions, loses to a lot of guys in the top five. Wonderboy's been in the top five for so long. I feel like three-round fights going into a decision in a fight that Stephen Thompson is involved. involved in. Normally, he's the one that's winning. I know he just lost to Gilbert Burns, but Gilbert Burns is really, really good. And I thought Belal Mohammed was a top 15 welterweight,

but not a top seven welterweight. So Belal Muhammad proved me wrong. The biggest upset, decision-wise, most dominant upset, I can think of in a long time in M.A. in terms of, like you said, that was just a shutout. I know we've seen... 30-25, man, 30-25. Biggest win in my career, I feel like, and I always knew I was top five, but now I could say that I really end top five. I think it makes a huge statement. Nobody's ever been able to do that to him and to get a 30-25 on anybody, especially a guy like Wonderboy who's bought for the title twice, who's been a staple in the top five. And everybody's rankings, not even just the UFC rankings, he's the worldwide rankings. He's always top five.

And he's a guy that everybody's afraid to fight because of, you know, nobody wants to deal with that puzzle. Nobody wants to try to figure that puzzle out. Nobody wants to have to go through a camp of wondering and figuring out what's Wonderboy going to throw at you or do to you. And I went in there and I just put that all to Russ. And the way I beat him, nobody can take that away from me. January 22nd, 2022, UFC 270 in Ganu versus Gan, Anaheim,

California. After beginning his professional fighting career with two straight stoppage losses, the Australian Jack Delah Madelena makes his UFC debut on the early prelims on a UFC pay-per-view in Southern California. The heavy betting favorite quickly disposes of Pete Rodriguez midway through round one by knockout. Congratulations on the victory. Leading into this fight, I think I read it headlines saying you wanted to put a master class, performance for your UFC debut. So is that about as perfect as you can for a debut like that? Yeah, that's obviously always the plan. I'll have to obviously go back in take a look and then I'll assess it. But overall, it's pretty pretty pretty. Yeah, definitely happy with the performance.

The win was obviously the most important thing. So getting the win is awesome. And then just I guess we'll go back to the drawing board to see what we can improve for next time. April 16th, 2022. fight night, Lucay versus Muhammad 2, Las Vegas, Nevada. Balaah Muhammad gets the opportunity to avenge an early knockout loss of his UFC career by facing Vicente Lucke in a rematch at the UFC apex. This time, it will be as the 25-minute main event. When you look at Sente Luque, Balaal-Mohamed, which of them is more likely do you feel like

to break into that top three that we currently have going, a Camaro, Colby, Hamzat, actually like be competitive like actually be somebody that can make a difference in there luke i think that's obvious right like it doesn't sound like you're very high on below i'm not gonna lie i love him great fighter he is neil magni 2.0 that's he is just gonna be neil magni when neomagnie retires like or they're just going to concurrently be the neil magni guy who's really well-skilled competitive tough out for anybody never going to fight for a title and that's That's okay. Most people don't end up fighting for titles and can still make a quality career out of being one of the 10 best people in the world at their profession. That is a thing that we

do not celebrate enough in this sport, frankly. Blah Muhammad is one of those. But he is, I don't, I would be very surprised if he ever fought for UFC belt. I think winning against Louke is paramount to him doing that because otherwise I don't see him. I think a loss here sets him back probably further than Luque, just because Luque is so dynamic and so exciting that a couple of wins can get him in the conversation, whereas a loss here

really puts Ballal like five wins back because he wins them all by quality decision. So, you know, I think Luque is the more dynamic, more exciting, more interesting fighter. I think he's the better fighter. I think he has much better offense, and those are the things

that usually coincide with somebody making a real run towards the top three towards a title fight, that kind of stuff. I'm not trying to denigrate Bala Muhammad, but to me it's just he is not some rising prospect who we don't know the things about it. Well, it's 33 years old. Like we know the cake is baked,

we know what kind of a fighter is, and that fighter is damn good. But it's pretty clearly limited, and, you know, I think this is probably around where he's capped as far as his upward mobility is. The betting underdog once again defies the odds and evens up the series with a dominant decision victory, snapping Lucay's four-fight win streak.

I was absolutely flabbergasted. I mean, I said this. I agreed with our own Damon Martin on the preview show that if you want to call Vicente Lucke won, if not the most exciting fighter on planet Earth, I'm not going to argue with that. And I said, Blah Muhammad is very good. I just think Vicente-Luke is better everywhere.

And my God, De Blah, Muhammad, prove me. I'm not even to say prove me wrong. He proved everyone on the site wrong, essentially. I don't think anyone picks Balmohamaama to win. I thought Vicente Luque, he lost the first couple rounds. I thought he was going to go in there and just blast him, maybe get a dars choke on like a lazy shot from Bilal Mohammed. But Mal Muhammad, but Mal Muhammad, just what, like seven, eight wins in a row

and his like one win away from a UFC welterweight title shot, that is not something I had on my bingo board for 2022. But good on you, Bilal Mohammed. You proved everyone wrong. Yeah, you mentioned the picks. I mean, I just breaking the fourth wall here. Internally, we have like a little slack room where we make our picks. And I think there's maybe like eight or ten of us in there,

and there was not a single person tonight who picked Bala Muhammad. Not one. Everybody. Vicente Leuke crossed the board. And I think a lot of people out there in the MMA land just generally were following suit. First, incredible effort from Balaal and take nothing away from him. Second, I don't know. Maybe I was just wrong about Vicente Luque.

this like it looked like he went back to Michael Graves like coming off tough can't defend any sort of a takedown and like I don't know what the stats are I'm not looking at him but Ball all had to have landed 95% of his takedowns in that fight like he did not he did not fail when he was trying to take the fight to the mat and on the feet I thought in that third round luke was going to come on strong he had started to build momentum but he he just kind of never built off that And Ballal straight out worked him. So great, great performance from Ballal. It doesn't change my opinion on his ceiling, frankly, other than by one spot. I think he now, I had him, I think, right below.

And he's going to go up in front of Lucke. I still don't think he's going to beat the guys at the top of the division. But incredible performance. You can't take anything away from that. June 11th, 2022. UFC 275 to Shara versus Prahashka, Singapore. Jack Delamadalena is set to face the Russian Ramazan Amive on the pay-per-view main card in Singapore. JDM moves to 2-0 in the UFC with his second straight stoppage victory, this time by a first round finish via a nasty liver shot.

With the win, Delamadalena earns his first performance bonus. It was awesome, you know, no one's ever sold Ramazan. That was the goal. And to be able to get that goal, it's goal accomplished. onto the next. What's the ceiling for JDM, Sean? I mean, after a night like this, it feels pretty high, right? You don't want to, I mean, it's one performance, so you don't want to get lost on it,

but Ramzan Amir is pretty legit. He trucked through him like it was nothing. Like, he trucked through that, he trucked through that man in like two minutes. That to me says a lot. That's not somebody who gets finished in two minutes. The ceiling feels pretty high right now. We haven't seen a lot, so it's hard to, yeah.

I'm not going to proclaim him a future champion, but he seems like someone who's going to be a figure that matters at 170, certainly. Yeah. If he's in the top 10 in 2023, would not be surprised. What do you think, Jed? I mean, listen, it wasn't just a got, like, not a lot of people go out there and finish Ramadan on me even two minutes. Nobody in the UFC has finished a span.

It's the first time he's been finished to you. So what do you think his deal is? I think he's off. I feel really confident saying he'll be a top 10 fighter. I don't think he'll be a top 10 fighter next year just because Walter Waite is a really difficult division to break into. Not that he couldn't compete with some of those guys by next year, but just Jorge Mastodal doesn't fight good guys but holds, but maintains like that ranking. So it just kind of, it's really tough to make hay there. But yeah.

maybe challenges for a title i want to he'll need more development but i mean got a lot of great traits big big paul's and a puppy it's doing great kids gonna get you got to watch i love anyone who has like a very an easily discernible a plus skill and his boxing is just so good and it's like again one a plus skill again i'm against the mixing of the martial arts you guys know that so seeing seeing seeing someone who can who has one a plus skill to fall back on that can take you a long way and and some decent cropping defense he's got judo background which is always kind of funky gives you a kind of something to play around with you know defensively um so i like that but i mean in any when you have a guy who right now in any fight it looks like he has a chance to keep things sort of

boxing range boy that's that's that's exciting that's really fun to watch i love dude to rip rib roasters and that man that's the thing that's that's the skill that gets me all hot and bothers like ooh that's what's up and he's got some hot because He's got heart too. He was in deep trouble. That's fish was on tight. Yep. And he just overpowered and just ripped the arm right off and got up and that was it. Plus, you can't break his nose because it's already clearly been shattered. He's got that Andre Arlovsky squash nose. So he's never going to worry about breaking it mid-fight and then having the deal with that. He's golden. You got ahead of the curve. If you ever, ever run into somebody who's profile as a side profile is just fly.

flat. Don't start shit with that person. Stay away. It's like cauliflower. Yeah, it's like cauliflower ears. Like, cool, I'm going to go the other way. Della Madelana would go on to knock out British fighter Danny Roberts at UFC Vegas and Jachuku versus Kuchalaba in November 2020 to move his UFC record to 3 and 0 with three straight finishes and back-to-back performance bonuses.

All we want to talk about is Jack Della and the. silkiest hands at Walter Waits. Picture perfect matchmaking for the UFC. You accomplished everything you wanted to here. And now you're going to throw this man onto a pay-per-view card in front of a capacity crowd that's going to be all cheering for him in Perth against a top 20, 25-ish guy, maybe even higher. You accomplished everything.

The only thing you could have done better is when you lost Eric Lewis, you just threw him in that spot. And that's how the card ended. And I think not that we don't have a great, an okay feeling with. Kennedy finishing the fight the way that he did and cutting that promo. But Jack Della going out there and just whooping on Danny Roberts, who's tough. He beat the hell out of Danny Roberts. That would have been a nice way to end this card and just give him as much of a rough as possible.

But other than that, I got no complaints. This guy is the real deal, Jedmishu. The silkiest hands at Welterway. I like that. I like that. I got no real issues with that statement. Dude's got mitts. I don't know any part of the rest of his game,

because we have never seen it. He just does the same thing over and over, which is box everybody's ears in the first round. But that's good. We gave him enough of these fights. Let's give him somebody who's really going to test his medal a little bit, and let's see what we got cooking with this boy. There's a lot of good matchups for him available, I think, right now.

October 22nd, 2022. UFC 280, Olivera versus Mike. Al-Lakachev, Abu Dhabi. Once again, as a betting underdog, Allah-Mohamed is set to face undefeated rising prospect and grappling phenom Sean Brady as the featured prelim

of the pay-per-view event. You know, I've been in the UFC, I've been undefeated before, and I know what it feels like. Obviously, he probably has all the confidence in the world. He's just coming off a big win against the top six guys. So the way that he tried to call it out,

call it out on Twitter, acting like he could beat me and all this other stuff, that's what motivates me more. Because when people do that, when people talk trash, the last three guys that I fought, they were all more so very nice, very respectful, the nicest guys in the world, Damia, Wonderboy, Luke, like, so nice. So it feels good to have somebody that I don't like that, all right,

you call it out, you called me out, you're saying I'm running, you're saying I'm doing this, blah, blah, blah, trying to talk all this big game. Now all that talk, you got to show me now Saturday. And, you know, be careful. for what you wish for. What was it like having Habib in your camp for this fight? It was amazing. It was the guy that you know you look up to a guy that I think of as the goat, the best fighter to ever do it. And I'm training side by side with who I think is the best lightweight

in the world and McAchev. And he's not small. He's not he's not a small guy. And if you even look at the other guys in the room, like their whole room is full of killers. And I'm looking at these guys like, oh, this kid's 20 years old. He's not in the UFC. And the way he's going, he's amazing. He's, he's, he's, their grappling is good. Their striking is good. Every single day, every single one of them is not trying to lose a round, not trying to lose a second. So it just brought a different competitiveness to the practices, a competitiveness to myself. And it changed my mindset. So knowing that there's guys like that out there, I'm like, bro, I need to get this title and get the fudge out of this game. Well, to kind of add more gasoline to the fire for Sean.

and we asked him about you, you having Habib in your corner, and his response was, Habib's not undefeated as a cornerman, so I like your response to that. That has nothing to do with it. That was a stupid response. See, that's why I hate Philadelphia,

because they say stupid things. In a breakout performance, Muhammad dominates Brady and finishes him with strikes late into round two. The victory earns Muhammad a UFC performance bonus. That man just came. out and got the kind of win that he had not had before, right?

Like, what has been the thing around Balamah Muhammad this whole past year? He's a boring guy who doesn't, you know, he's not a real contender. He's this guy who's sort of getting by on smoking mirrors and all of this stuff. Like, tonight in general was just a night of people who have generally had people doubt them. Most of their careers really flipping the script on it in a really interesting way. Like, I kind of enjoyed just the running theme throughout a lot of these fights. But Balamahmad, more so than anyone, was just, he came out. He came out here and got the exact type of statement win that everyone told him he couldn't get.

And once again, getting doubted. I sent out a tweet earlier of like if you had parlayed, just somehow hypothetically been able to do this, parlay Balal's last three fights where it's been the underdog and all of them, you just put $100 on them. You would have won like $1,800 or something like that. Like the level to which nobody has believed in this Bilal Muhammad run has been frankly stunning. And the fact that he was able to come out here. And once again, underdog, lose, lose almost type of fight. where he's fighting this big, strong, powerful up-and-comer

who was just a very tough stylistic match for him. And I've seen a thousand previews and whatever picks this this past week. And I don't know that I've seen anybody in the world pick Balam-Mohamed. And once again, he came out here and got it done. And again, the exact type of win that was lacking on his resume. If I'm in the UFC, I'm absolutely thrown Balah Muhammad

against Hamzaa Shmajahev and a number one consenter fight on that Perth card or wherever. No, not the Perth card, but the Leon Edwards card. the London card. Like that's the move. He is now the number one contender. If Colby's not going to sit out, if Colby's just going to sit out and not accept fights

and not fight real contenders in this division, I don't see why you need to reward him with a number one contender fight. It feels like Ballal versus Hamzat is the fight. And I hope that's what gets done. It was one thing to be trained with Habib and his team throughout this whole fight camp. But what was it like to finally actually have him

in your corner during a fight? It was amazing. It was like a different type of energy. He saw a lot of things. And he clicked well with my other coaches. It wasn't like he felt like he was, was the one in charge now. He was like, yo, coach, what do you have to say? What does this have to say? And then, uh, he was just pushing to me the whole time. We have to finish him. We have to finish

him. We have to finish it. These are your people. This is your crowd. They're here for you. You have to go out there and put on the performance for the ages. And I did it. And even in that second round, he kept screaming to me. He's breaking. He's breaking. He's breaking. He's breaking. He's breaking. And you know, you want to have those people around you in your corner because they see different things that you see inside. And for a guy like Kim who sees everything. And he was seeing it. My other coaches were seeing it. We made adjustments where, We're like, all right, go up the middle now instead of wide with my punches. And those uppercuts were landing a lot more uppercut to over the hand.

And that's what caught him. You obviously called out Hamza at the end, the Big Battle Wolf. Is it that or the title shot next? Those are the two fights you want moving forward? Yeah, I think those are the only two that makes sense. I feel like what else do you need for me? I just like I said, this is the fourth top ten guy I'm fighting. Me and Leon have unfinished business.

That fight ended because of him. I took it on short notice. Obviously, Usman, I do feel deserves the rematch. But if he's going to take some time off to let his brain heal, let him do that and let me and Leon fight. Other than that, I want to be on that card. And I want to be fighting the next best guy. I definitely do think I need the Leon fight back. I've been wanting that fight.

I've been calling for that fight. Even with that fight, it was like people were saying that you didn't. I took that fight at like a week notice. And it was a main event. So people don't understand that coming off of a fight with Lima and then running into that camp with him. And it's like, you go on from a righty. to the Southwads, there's no training for that camp. So like, give me a full camp to fight to fight, and it's a different story. That fight was only one round. So for Leon to always say that,

well, the rest of the fight was going to go that way. Look at his fight. They just have him a Wosman. He was losing four rounds, and then he ended up winning in the fifth round. So that's the fight game. So when people come up with that narrative, like, oh, you're going to lose anyway. That's just stupid. And little things like that, that's what pisses me off. It makes me angry. February 11th, 2023, UFC 284, Mokachev versus Volcanovsky, Perth, Western Australia. Jack Della Madelena is booked in his highest profile UFC bout to date, a main card slot on pay-per-view in his hometown of Perth, opposite Randy Brown. Yeah, he's a good challenging opponent. He's extremely tall. He's been in the game a lot,

fought some of the top guys in the division. So yeah, I'm excited to challenge myself. I think I can beat him. And yeah, that's what I'm coming to do. Do you feel like you're overlooked in this division as a prospect? Not really. I think I've had a few fights. I think, yeah, hopefully after this fight,

then be right in there with those guys and hopefully competing with one of those guys soon. So Saturday morning here, in one after the fight out, what does the headline say? How does this fight play out? I think I'm going to put on, my plan is put on a masterclass, you know, go in there not be hit and damage Randy from the get-go. J-DM takes full advantage of the opportunity and finishes Randy Brown by first round submission. J-DM remains undefeated inside the UFC Octagon and takes home his third consecutive performance bonus. It was this style that he does a lot, like I watched a lot of his fights and he gets pushed up against the Kavana. and then just sort of cruises out.

He did it to me a few times, and I just waited from a cruise, and I hit him with a hard shot and went down. I hit him a few times, and I thought I was landing, and then he turned and gave his neck. So I know how to choke someone, so I just jumped on it.

Jack Delamatta, Shaheen Al-Shadhi. This guy's the real, real, is he not? No, what a performance. My goodness, this man is for real, Mike Hag. For real, real. Yeah, no one does that to Randy Brown. Like, no one's ever done that. to Randy Brown. Like he's gotten finished, but he's never gotten finished that fast.

Like Jackie, Jackie three names is just out of control with how good he's been so far in the UFC, right? Like, this is four fights in a row now, four first round stoppages, and like, it's starting to be against really good competition. And that's the type of fight. That's the type of special performance that we saw tonight that elevates you instantly into, that you take that elevator right to the top 50 matchups. Like you do not have to do the thing where we waste our time giving you five different matchups, seven different matchups to see if you're ready, for the top 15. Like, no, he's going to be fighting a top 15 guy next and he should be.

And I'm so hyped for it. Like, I wouldn't put him yet, like, because 170 is an interesting spot, right? Where there's a lot of old war horses sort of mulling about the top, milling around, still kind of waiting for their first or second or third shot. And this is a log day jam division for the most part for a while now. But then also you just have this other side of this division where you got the shaft cat, you got the Hamzot. And now I put, I throw Mattelena in that.

in the same group. I wouldn't put him quite yet with those two. Those two to me are still at a level above, but I have all the confidence in the world tonight that he can reach that type of level. Like this was a statement victory if I've ever seen one and I am so in on this guy. This guy is hyper violent and man, if I'm at 170, if I'm one of those old war horses at 170, I am not trying to fight that man. Absolutely not. Della Madelena is then booked as the co-main event at the UFC Apex card headlined by Holly Holie Holm versus Myra Bueno Silva against top 10 ranks Sean Brady, but Brady is forced to pull out and is replaced by UFC debutante, Basel Hefez. JDM wins the fight by split decision and takes

home his first fight of the night performance bonus. May 6th, 2023, UFC 288 Sterling versus a hootow, Newark, New Jersey. After an injury to Charles Olivera scratches the original co-main event for the pay-per-view card against Benil Daryush. On a little over two weeks notice, the UFC announces that Bilal Muhammad will face Gilbert Burns in the new five-round co-main event. You know, I was just sitting there minding my own business, chilling in Toronto, and then all of a sudden I get a call, and they ask me if you want to fight, and you know me, I love to fight.

So I was excited for the opportunity. It was a huge opportunity, and I was just going to say no. So got right back to work, called my coaches, called my team. We all said, let's do it. And I'm ready. I mean, most important thing most of the time when you have a fight is where's your mentality at? Where's your mind at? Because you could sit there and train your body for eight weeks, feel the best you can feel.

And then if you just feel something triggering your head, something where you don't feel right. Like the whole fight, the whole camp will be worth nothing. So during Ramadan, my mind is the strongest ever been. Spiritually, mentally, like, it just puts me on a whole different. level. So to know that my mental game was 100%, I didn't care what my body game was. I didn't care what the wake-go was. I didn't care what the rounds were because I knew mentally I could get through anything. And I know that for me, like, it's all about God's plan. And I felt like God put me in that position at that right time to be in that right shape for this one moment. Because this moment

right here is where careers are made, where legendary stories are told. And to be able to do that off of I want people to sit there and be like, how? What do you do? What are you taking? There's nothing that nobody could deny me for after I win this fight Saturday night. And according to both guys and even Dana White at the press conference yesterday, the winner of this fight will go on to fight for the UFC Walterway title in their next fight, whether that is true or not remains to be seen.

But Jose, your thoughts on this co-main event matchup on less than three weeks notice between Gilbert Burns and Blahamaama. I mean, I like the fight as a fight, but like obviously, realistically, Boulin Mohammed should have already gotten the title shot, and I'm never not going to watch Gilbert Burns fight. So I like this fight as a high-level martial arts fight, and I like, I am ecstatic that it's a five-round fight because I think number one 10-year-fights should all be five-round fights. That being said, I think, like, if you're going to ask me

who has the most to win or most to lose in this fight, The answer is very clearly, Bala Muhammad. It's more obvious than when you asked me about the main event, and I chose Al Jemaine Sterling, because Bala Muhammad has talked a lot of, he's done a lot of guest fighter media scrums. He's talked a lot on Twitter. He's at press conferences saying,

oh, no wonder the Nets left New Jersey for Brooklyn and this and that. He is not liked by the fans, unfortunately. And as he said, if I win this fight and you're still a hater, you're just always going to be a hater. It doesn't help that he's fighting. one of the more fan-friendly in terms of action in Gilbert Burns. The man, this is third fight of 2023, and if he wasn't going to wait for the title,

if he wins this fight, I can very easily see a world where Gilbert Burns fights five, six times in 2023. That man always wants to fight, and he's always in very exciting fights. And obviously the Hamzaf fights, one of the best fights Joel ever seen ever. And then Neil Magin, he just kind of tore through, and then he retired Horamazido.

Balaamuhae beats Gilbert Burns, it will be the biggest win of his career. He'll get his number of contender. He'll do something that Hamzad's done, and Kamar Uzman has done at Welterweight. Unless I'm forgetting someone, those are the only two guys to beat Gilbert Burns at Welterwood. Balaamahmah has lost to Leon Edwards after getting stabbed in the eye. Outside of that, he's being everyone put in front of him. And I feel like he's one of those guys that it kind of reminds me of when the U.S. would match Mike Yonklovich, where they would give him.

these guys where, oh, if you beat Yon, you'll get a title shot like Sean Brady, Vicente Lucke, Stephen Thompson, like all these guys. They just really want them to, they want, the USC wants them to beat Bilal and they go onto a title shot. And Balal just kind of grinds them into the canvas and picks up a win. And then they're like, oh, what can Bilal do to get more fans? Why don't you go fight undefeated Sean Brady in Abu Dhabi, fight backwards in the rankings? And maybe if you knock him out, we'll cheer for you.

He does all of those things. and they still boo him. So he's leaned into it. Bala Muhammad has everything to win, everything to lose. Muhammad extends his undefeated streak to 10 fights and wins by unanimous decision. There's nothing that was going to stop me from walking to this case tonight. There's nothing that was going to stop me from not doing it because this is my chance. This is my moment to prove to the world and show the world what I'm capable of doing.

And to do that, I know that there was no pulling out. nothing like, oh man, you know what, never mind. It was like, once I made the decision, we had to go through with it. And thank God we got through it. You falling in love with your hands a little bit, man. No, I'm just, I love falling in love with proving people wrong. Like people don't understand the work we put in. Me and my team, my guys, I work with the best team in the world.

And people are going to start asking us literally to write books. Like, man, what do you guys do for training? I get so many fighters. Hey, what do you guys do with that drill? How do you guys drill like that? And it's like, we're doing the right things. I think we have the perfect mindset, the perfect team. the perfect guys around me, the perfect circle.

And we showing you guys we could do anything. My last fight, I wanted to box. This fight I wanted to kick. The last fight before that, I wanted to wrestle. The fight before that I wanted to, maybe the next time I'm gonna pull guard. I'm gonna show you guys that I could do it all. It's martial arts, mixed martial arts,

and I could do all the mixing. It is not Bilal Bahamas's problem if Gilbert Burns gets hurt in that fight. All Bilal Muhammad has done over the last, like, what, three weeks, right? He gets the phone call for this fight that we said in the lead up was an objectively, bad, like, decision for him to take this fight, right? It was very much like, you don't really need to be doing this right now.

It felt very reactionary to what was going out with the Kobe Coventon situation. When Balaz gets this call, he's in the middle of Ramadan still. And I don't know if y'all have ever done Ramadan. I grew up in a Muslim household. Ramadan is incredibly difficult. Fasting sunrise to sunset for weeks on end. He was the furthest thing from fight ready, I would imagine. When he gets this phone call and it's, hey, like everything you just put,

everything you just put together over the past five years, this career best run, career defining run, really, your best thing that you're ever going to do in MMA over the past five years. We want you to wager at all, put all of that momentum on the line

in like two and a half weeks against this absolute killer and Gilbert Burns, who I think all of us have immense respect for it. And not only does he do it, like he wants it to be five rounds, the whole thing, like he put everything on the line. This was all in.

He kept, Balamahad cashed all his chips, all in for this. This was do or die for him. If he lost this fight tonight, regardless of what it looked like, it could have been the most controversial fight in the world. It was something we all thought he won and he doesn't get the judges call, whatever. He would have had to win 40 fights in a row to be ever considered for a UFC title shot again. And you know it and I know it. And that's just the stark reality of this situation for Bola Muhammad.

So the fact that he came in here wagered everything, literally wagered his career, basically, on this opportunity that he super didn't need to take. It had a lot more downside to him than upside. and managed to come out here and actually, again, pull out the win that he needed to secure the title shot that should have already been his.

Sensational. A plus, I don't even care, man. I don't want to hear any other, I don't want to hear any negativity. I don't want to hear whether you thought it was boring or whatever. Doesn't matter. Dude out came out here and is won and all he has done is win.

10 straight fights unbeaten at this point. Like, you can try to poke holes in as much as you want. Dude is the right and proper number one contender and he deserves our respect. September 16th, 2023, Noce UFC, Grasso versus Shevchenko 2, Las Vegas, Nevada. Jack Delamadalena is booked in the co-main event

against fan favorites, Kevin Holland. What are you expecting from him? Because he can sometimes, you know, get a little bit of a rivalry going. He can be very cool. He's a bit of a wild box, let's say. Yeah, you know, I don't know what to expect. I don't really care.

you know, I'm coming to fight. So whatever happens leading up to it happens, but there's definitely going to be the time for fighting. So just waiting for that. Yeah. And this is Noche, Wuficea, celebrating the Mexican Independence Day on September 16th. Obviously, you're not Mexican,

but you do have some sort of a connection. Obviously, you're a great boxer, and given Mexico's history with boxing. I'm wondering if you have any appreciation for Mexican culture and being on this card as well. Yeah, I'm a fan of Mexican boxes. There's been some legendary ones. And, yeah, I plan on getting into the inside and fighting in Mexican style.

Yeah. Delam Adelana wins by split decision. The last two fights weren't your typical JDM fights or you go out and get your opponent out of there inside the distance. But do you think you needed to go through fights like your last two in order to continue to develop? Yeah, for sure. I think every fight you can pick things away. And especially when you get three rounds in, there's a lot more film to study and a lot more like, technical aspect you can work on and just good experience.

And obviously you finally got your fight at the T-Mobile arena that you've been asking for. How was this fight week for you? Yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome before just to run smoothly, get to the fight and fight. And then, yeah, it was the first time I've ever been in there. And it's a pretty impressive arena and just being at the top there and looking down. It's a cool, like, thing to tick off the list of things I've done. It's a tough fight, man.

That's another one. Could have gone either way. But I did have that 29, 28. And it's a good bounce back for JDM, though I do wonder if the last two have maybe slowed this role a little bit. Because it felt like we were getting hot and heavy with the JDM is going to be a future champion talk pretty hard after his first few UFC fights. And I think now maybe it is a moment to settle down on that. Like he's certainly someone who's going to matter in this division, certainly. And he has a long way to go.

He has a long future ahead of him. But I think this was a good indication that, you know, hey, like, let's take some time here. This isn't something we need to rush. This is a super disciplined fight from him. which, you know, I think a lot of people guessed and you could have guessed that he, you know, he got an earful from his coaches at the end because they were telling him during the fight, stopped doing this dumb shit man. And so, you know, he went back to the well. And again, very, very disciplined performance. He clearly had stuff that he had worked on and was trained trying to do and then trying to figure out this fight in a way that best benefited his skills.

With Shaheen, I think Kevin Holland's approach to this fight was both good and bad. It was good in that it was a really competitive fight. And I think there is an argument that he won the fight. But I was really confident we were talking around the slack that the judges would not score this fight. I scored it for JDM. And I think the way that Kevin Holland was fighting was not conducive to success for most people because the optics are pretty poor. March 9th, 2024.

UFC 299, O'Malley versus Verrett 2, Miami, Florida. Jack Delamadelaena is booked on the pay-per-view main card against former title challenger Gilbert Doreno Burns. Yeah, I think Gilbert's a good fighter, you know. He's obviously battle tested. He's very tough. He's durable, and he's been in with there with some of the best. So, yeah, I definitely expect the challenge.

And for you, I guess what do you feel like is at stake here, right? He's a guy that's always hanging out at the top, ready for a title shot kind of right there. So what would a win over him do for you in your career? Yeah, it's a big one for me. You know, he's a top five. I think this is, I mean, I feel like if you can't beat Gilbert Burns, you can't become a world champion.

So my plan is to beat Gilbert Burns and prove that I belong in the top five. After dropping the first two rounds and on his way to losing the third and final round, Della Madelena lands a big knee to Burns and finishes him by ground and pound. The victory moves JDM's UFC record to 7 and 0 with five finishes and now five performance bonuses. JDM is just getting buried right now. Yeah, it's over. That hook. This is just good stuff from Gilbert right here.

Come on, Jack. Go, Jack. He tried to do. Go, Jack, let's go. He tried to do too much. Open knee! Go! Oh, go!

Oh, Jackie! Here we go. Jackie finish him, Donny G. Donny G. Donny G. Stop the fight. What are you doing? Don Giacomo. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Woo! I ain't completely giving up. Good for you, my man. Let's go. Why did I ever doubt the kid? He killed him. Like, that was, that was just.

That was unbelievable. I thought he was, I thought they were going to stay there stuck for the last minute. 50 seconds. Yeah, because if Gilbert just sat there and tried not to improve his position, that was how the fight was going to end. Did you see that pessimism work right there? That was so good. I buried myself and we just came out the other side.

Oh, good for you. Let's go, Donny G, baby! July 27, 2024. UFC 304, Edwards versus Muhammad 2, Manchester, England. After over a year away from competition, Allah Muhammad is set to challenge. the Welterway Champion of the world, Leon Edwards, as the main event for the pay-per-view card. You said yesterday you don't rate him as highly as you do, Usman or Colby Coveington.

So what exactly just beating him on Saturday do for your legacy as a Welterway champion? Keep that same energy as Saturday. You guys are going to be real disappointed. Move me now. Moving now. Saturday, my family, my people are going to be cheering. We don't want to hear that shit. You know, you've been very open with how much.

you hate Leon, does it annoy you that Leon isn't really batting an eyelid in terms of his emotions towards this fight? He isn't phased at all. It doesn't matter. What matters is Saturday night? I'm going to be battering his face. That's what can be battering Saturday night. So all this energy doesn't really mean anything. Keep trimming that. I want that same energy. I want you guys to give him confidence because Saturday night, your boy's going to get headshot dead. Guys going to have to wake him up. I want you guys to be this loud Saturday night at 5 a.m.

So he wakes up. You're going to be his alarm clock. For the fifth time in a row, Muhammad enters the fight as the betting underdog and is victorious. Al-Mahemah is now the brand new UFC welterweight champion. All of Palestine was watching. Obviously, it's a very difficult time right now.

How much pressure did that put on you? it wasn't it wasn't pressure it was for me i just wanted like it just showed me how like really this fight wasn't important it wasn't that big because they're they're fighting for their lives they're dying every single day i woke up today and you're seeing people dying and it's telling you how small this sport is how small this fight is so when i sit there and i stress out about it it's like it's just a fight it's 25 minutes but i'm still going to go see my family after this i'm still going to go eat what I want to eat after this. They're starving over there. They're dying over there.

So for me, if I give them some sort of attention, if I give them a smile on their face for getting this win, if I can make them not think about what hell they're going through in those 25 minutes, and it's 10 minutes, then I did something right. I did my job. If I get somebody to bring more attention to them, want to learn more about what's happening over there, it's just about educating. And I'm just hoping that I could use this platform, use my voice, use this type of. to bring more attention there and inshalla one day palest I'll be free.

I think I'm the best fighter in the world. I know I'm the best fight in the world. I just had to prove it and I had to show you guys. We had three years to sit there and I had to sit there and dwell on that thing, that last fight of everybody saying oh he would have beat him, he would have won the last other rounds. He would have did this, he would have did that. We didn't even get started that fight. This fight we got started. This is what we did. We just dominated the champion. We made it look easy and we did it better than Kobe did better than Ui's. We've been, they're national champ wrestlers.

They're this, this, and this. We went to Bogan High School. Shout out to Lou Taylor. And I'm not a, I've literally never turned down a fight. I never backed down from anybody. I had so many people turn down fights against me. So now I'm at the top. I'm the man.

And for me, now cementing my legacy is the best welter way to ever do it. I'm now going to sit there and call out these random guys and everything. Who's next in line? Who's the best in line? And I'm going to show you what I am, what I could do. They thought Leon could walk through me. Now I'm going to walk through all these other guys. It took me three years to get that taste out of my mouth.

Three years to finally get this fight back. And I had to deal with all the haters and all the trolls and everybody saying that he would have beat me. He would have did this. He would have did that. But now there's nothing else for them to say. In your mind, what would it take for you to leapfrog GSP? It just passes title defense record. Is it finishes?

What else do you have to do? I think beating this next generation of guys, right? You have Shavkat, you have Ian Gary, you have the JDM. So there's these young up-and-comers that everybody's saying are killers. They're probably still saying these guys are going to kill me next, right?

So if I go out there and I walk through all these guys and then I beat the old generation, there's really, I just want to be the guy that did everything that you said I couldn't do. And then if you go up, If what's his name, Driscus still has the title, he beats what's his face, Edisanya, and he was trying to talk tough to me. I'll go smack him around, try to get two belts.

The story of this fight is, Balaul Muhammad, you know, you guys know me. I hate the phrase silence the haters. I think that is very stupid. Belal gets that. Like, Belal gets to carry that mantle with him and be like, yeah, a lot of people doubted me. And wrong. Like you were, look, I did exactly what I said I was going to do. Remember, I didn't even promise I was going to finish him because I knew that I can't finish him.

I'm immune to that, but I can win a dominant decision over him and he did just that. So full credit to below all, I think I certainly just want to come from this of, hey man, stand up, talk your shit. It's your moment. Shine, baby. May 10th, 2025, UFC 315, Muhammad versus Della Madelana, Monterey. Montreal, Canada. Hala Muhammad will defend his UFC welterweight title for the first time against the Australian striker riding a 17-fight win streak, Jack Della Madelana, as the main event in Montreal, Canada.

To the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrance Sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store. or online at Holtrenfrew.com.