Did Belal Muhammad Make Costly Mistake?
During the post-UFC 315 edition of the “MMArcade Podcast,” Robert Whittaker shared his belief that Belal Muhammad made a huge error attempting to strike with Jack Della Maddalena for extended periods of time (via MMAJunkie).
“I expected more takedowns,” Whittaker said. “When he mixed in the striking to bring Jack onto him, to mix into his shots, they were clean every time. I think his only two takedowns more or less were from the open mat, drawing Jack into him. Now why didn’t we see more of that? I can’t help but feel like Belal was trying to make a point striking with Jack for the first three rounds. If that’s the case, that is ridiculous. Jack is amazing at that mid-range boxing. One of my paths to victory for Jack was to embrace the dogfight and make Belal pay for every step he went forward and every time he walked away, which Jack did unbelievably.”
While Muhammad had plans on defeating Maddalena and facing a few more challengers before moving up to middleweight, he’ll now likely see his teammate compete for double-champ status. UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev now appears to be in prime position to challenge Maddalena for the welterweight prize.
As for Muhammad, he’ll need to go back to the drawing board in order to remain in the 170-pound title hunt.
