Shavkat Rakhmonov looked human at UFC 310. While the undefeated Kazakh phenom continued his undefeated run with a unanimous decision victory over Ian Garry last weekend, the Irishman almost submitted him. Not to mention ‘Nomad’ was remarkably reluctant to engage with ‘The Future’ on the feet, choosing to wrangle with him against the cage instead. After the event, Daniel Cormier would claim that the reason Rakhmonov was so underwhelming was that he had a torn MCL coming into the fight.

“‘DC’ [Daniel Cormier]said he [Shavkat Rahmonov] had a torn MCL. So there’s always that [excuse], right? Whenever he doesn’t look unstoppable, or you know, untouchable, that’s when they say ‘Oh he had an injury’. I hate when guys come up with excuses after a win, right? Even while he’s the king of welterweight, Usman had his ‘thirty percent, that was only thirty percent’ [excuse]. I hate when guys do that when they win a fight,” Muhammad told Jason Anik on the ‘Anik and Florian’ podcast.

Neither Rakhmonov, nor his team, nor anyone else has confirmed this. However, Belal Muhammad really detests this and feels these are just excuses by ‘DC’ to explain away ‘Nomad’s relatively underwhelming performance. In fact, Muhammad felt that these excuses were very Kamaru Usman-like.

Usman, of course, had famously claimed in 2018 after winning a unanimous decision over Emik Meek that he was “sitting at about thirty percent”. These comments had been blasted by Dana White as ‘ridiculous’ and met with boos from the fans. Of course, the big difference between this and Rakhmonov’s torn MCL narrative is that the Kazakh himself hasn’t made the excuse. However, the champ is still mad, but at Cormier for having the temerity to write off Rakhmonov for not being dominant as usual. But what does Muhammad think about facing Rakhmonov?

Belal Muhammad relishes being the underdog going up against Rakhmonov

Belal Muhammad will fight Shavkat Rakhmonov sometime next year for the 170lbs title on the line. And he’s glad to be doing so. While Muhammad had picked Garry to win before UFC 310, the reigning champ revealed why he prefers to fight ‘Nomad’ for his first title defense.

“Now I get to fight a guy that’s 19 and 0, a guy that’s still considered the Boogeyman, a guy that still has all these people behind him. I love that. Because it keeps that chip on my shoulder, I’m still the underdog… So I can go out there and shut up some of these haters,” he said in the same interview with Anik.

Of course, Muhammad having a chip on his shoulder is a constant theme in his career. In addition, his penchant for decisions has made him extremely unpopular among fans. This is why ‘Bully B’ feels a constant need to prove himself, which apparently he thrives on and gets motivated by. Whether that is enough to get over Rakhmonov, however, remains to be seen. What do you think about Belal Muhammad’s issues with the ‘torn MCL’ narrative?