Max Headroom 
Belal Muhammad couldn’t help but laugh at Kamaru Usman’s hypocrisy after he called for Islam Makhachev to go after the UFC welterweight title for his next fight.
It’s been well-documented that Muhammad spent a lot of time in recent years training alongside Makhachev and UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov, who serves as his head coach, with everybody involved saying there was no interest in eventually fighting each other. While Makhachev had previously expressed interest in pursuing a second UFC championship, he’s since admitted that he wouldn’t want to move to welterweight so long as Muhammad is holding the title.
Still, Usman insisted that Makhachev should set friendships aside and go after that title but Muhammad was quick to remind the former champion how he constantly avoided a similar situation involving Israel Adesanya when he sat atop the welterweight mountain.
“They never trained together, but he said ‘I would never fight Israel,’” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “He also said he would never fight Khabib. I’m like bro, you never trained with them before.
“When he said ‘these guys train together? Let’s get rid of that notion.’ Bro, shut up. You’ve never been in the room with Adesanya or worked out or sweated with Adesanya in your life and you made it seem like you would never fight him ever because he’s your brother.”
Muhammad scoffed at Usman’s advice because Makhachev has made it clear he’s not interested in that fight either.
Deep down, Muhammad thinks Usman is just projecting his own jealousy that he’s not champion anymore, and he’s lashing out at the person now holding the title.
“If they’re going out there calling me out, this and that, it’s a different story,” Muhammad said about Makhachev. “But everybody’s just looking for that notion to hate on me. They’re looking for that notion because they don’t want me to be champion. They want to make it seem like I don’t belong.
“But I went out there and dominated the guy who beat you twice, Usman. Leon [Edwards] killed you. He knocked you out. Put you out cold and then dominated you. I went out there and dominated him and made it look easy. So you acting like ‘I got lucky.’ Nah, bro, we’re not on the same path. We’re not on the same level.”
In recent months, Muhammad and Usman have exchanged more than a few words through interviews and social media. At one point. Muhammad even appeared on Usman’s podcast, but the interaction was so toxic that the episode was never released.
Muhammad believes Usman’s constant jabs at him are really just projecting because the 37-year-old veteran hasn’t competed in nearly two years and his relevancy in the division is starting to fade. Add to that, the reigning UFC champion says that Usman’s legacy is already tainted by the way he defended his title five times but only faced three opponents due to two different rematches.
“That’s the thing when Kamaru was champion he wasn’t looking for tests,” Muhammad said. “He was a coward champion. He was the champion with ‘oh let me get the rematch with Colby [Covington], who sucks’ or ‘let me get the rematch with [Jorge] Masvidal.’ His reign was rematches.
“He never wanted to fight the next best guy. He never wanted the guy on the hot streak. He avoided those guys, avoided those tough tests. He was the coward champion. He wasn’t looking for the toughest tests. He wasn’t that guy.”
Lately, Muhammad feels like Usman is much more comfortable taking shots from the sidelines than actually getting back in the octagon to potentially earn his way back to another title fight opportunity.
Usman is currently sitting on a three-fight losing streak with his most recent win coming in 2021.
“This guy’s a podcaster now, right? That’s what it is. He’s not a fighter,” Muhammad said. “Also, too, it’s like you’re No. 2 in the division. Do you not want to get your name back in the mix by fighting one of these tough guys? No, because he doesn’t want to take these tough fights, he doesn’t want to take these tough tests. He’ll fight Khamzat [Chimaev] on one week’s notice because now he has an excuse built up if he loses. ‘Oh at least I took him on one week’s notice and nobody else would do that, it was a close fight so I’m proud to be in a close loss.’ I hate guys like that, that are proud of close losses.
“You lost. You’re on a three-fight losing streak. You’re closer to the Tony Ferguson streak than you are closer to being back in the title mix. Pretty soon people that had you on that list of top welterweights, you’re going to be on that list of forgotten welterweights if you just stay on the sidelines and just keep trying to be this podcaster that you suck at.”
For all the bad blood simmering between them, Muhammad doesn’t expect that he’ll ever actually face Usman in the cage because he doesn’t view him as a viable challenger, especially as he continues sitting on the sidelines with no indication about when he might compete again.
While Leon Edwards is preparing to face Jack Della Maddalena in March and rising contenders like Joaquin Buckley are active and building a winning streak, Usman spends more time behind the microphone these days and Muhammad doesn’t see how that’s any different from another fighter with a loud mouth who talks a lot these days but hasn’t fought in years.
“For Usman, you just got called out by [Joaquin] Buckley,” Muhammad said. “You got called out by Ian [Machado Garry]. He’s getting called out by all these guys and then he complains ‘all these losers keep calling me out, why you keep calling me out, when I’m healthy [I’ll fight], blah, blah, blah.’ Bro, you’ve been out over a year. If your knees are gone, your knees are gone. They’re not going to get any better. They’re not going to randomly grow cartilage.
“Either defend your ranking or get out of the rankings. Because there’s hungry guys, hungry contenders that are right there. I think he just wants to be a podcaster. He just wants to be a guy like a [Conor] McGregor where he stays in the mix just by saying stupid stuff and hoping that it gets headlines. They’re not going to be the guys that fight. They’re not going to be the guys that want the next hungry guys anymore.”
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