Belal Muhammad turned the narrative around him on its head two months ago. Oft-criticized by fans for his supposed knack for decisions, his grappling-heavy fighting style had been a regular subject of fans’ ridicule, who found him to be a ‘boring’ fighter. However, all of that changed at his UFC 304 clash against then-champion Leon Edwards.

‘Bully B’ lived up to his moniker and went on to bully and maul ‘Rocky’ for five rounds at their Manchester fight, becoming the new UFC welterweight champ due to his sheer dominance. A large part of the credit to Khabib Nurmagomedov, under whose tutelage he prepared for the Edwards clash.

However, one man is still not convinced that Muhammad is any good, and it’s lightweight title contender Arman Tsarukyan. The Armenian, in a recent interview, pointed out why Muhammad was a successful fighter but went on to clarify that he didn’t find the welterweight champ’s wrestling impressive (which is ‘Bully B’s strongest suit).

To really drive the point home, the lightweight made a really eyebrow-raising claim that will enrage the champ. Tsarukyan claimed there were ‘a lot of guys’, whom he personally knew and had shared the mat with, who were a ‘hundred times’ better than Muhammad at wrestling.

“[Belal’s] legs move well (i.e. he has good footwork) but there is a lot of guys [in MMA] who are much better than him, 100 times [better] for example. Belal also trains well before his fights, when he wants. [But] then I’ve trained with a lot of guys who are better [than Belal Muhammad],” he said. But these unprovoked and seemingly unwarranted comments from Tsarukyan have raised one question.

Why did Arman Tsarukyan trash Belal Muhammad’s wrestling?

Arman Tsarukyan is gearing up for the most important fight of his career. The lightweight star is set to face champ Islam Makhachev for the UFC’s vaunted lightweight title. While they were slated to fight in Abu Dhabi in late October originally, Makhachev has a hand injury that has pushed the date to late 2024, or early 2025.

Makhachev too, of course, is close to Khabib, who usually joins Makhachev in camp to prepare his childhood friend for his title defenses. Perhaps the fact that both Muhammad and his Makhachev have an affinity with Khabib, and are close themselves, is one of the reasons that has caused Tsarukyan to trash ‘Bully B’.

Regardless, that explanation seems a bit too farfetched. In addition, Tsarukyan, in the same interview confirmed he has no plans to move up to welterweight in the future. This means he is trash-talking a fighter who has never said a bad word about him (at least publicly), nor whom he sees himself ever fighting. In this case, the simplest explanation seems the correct one, and it seems Tsarukyan honestly does think Muhammad is that good of a wrestler. What are your thoughts on Tsarukyan’s disrespectful comments about ‘Bully B’s wrestling?