MMA has seen friendships often being sacrificed on the altar of ambition. Talk about Jon Jones & Rashad Evans, Kamaru Usman & Gilbert Burns, or maybe the duo of Cody Garbrandt & TJ Dillashaw. And this could very well be the case with reigning 155lbs kingpin Islam Makhachev as he finds himself trapped in a peculiar chess match. His opponent? A man bound by a brotherhood thicker than championship gold: Belal Muhammad. If you question the competitive flair of either of the two, this situation will seem like a human roadblock standing between the Dagestani and history.

Makhachev prowls the lightweight division, his eyes burning with the hunger for a second title. Meanwhile, Muhammad stands firm, an immovable object of loyalty. And this hasn’t changed one bit for the Chicago native. Safe to say, a soap opera written in sweat, blood, and mutual respect! And when UFC veteran Paul Felder cornered Muhammad on Michael Bisping’s podcast on YouTube, hoping to crack this armor, he might as well have been trying to split an atom with a feather. Muhammad’s response? A wall of friendship so impenetrable that even the most cunning promoter couldn’t breach it.

“Yeah, it was annoying, right, because when you don’t have a name or a date. You just get, like, frustrated, especially because they’re giving me the date but they’re like ‘Oh, we’ll let, you know, who it’s gonna be.’ I’m like ‘All right, well, who is it gonna be?’ And then you hear like everybody’s asking you in every interview ‘Is it gonna be Islam?’ And we’re like ‘bro we’re not fighting,'” ‘Bully B’ said.

But Bisping was unconvinced. In his characteristic bombastic fashion, the former middleweight champ pointed out, “You shared a training room for two weeks okay. You guys aren’t exactly brothers,” and therefore should fight each other. But Muhammad revealed that their bond actually goes deeper.

“Oh, I think it’s more than that [two weeks of training with Makhachev], right? It’s bigger than that. Even when I did my whole camp for Sean Brady, it was in Dubai with him so we were there for six weeks with them guys. And like I said, Khabib and Islam, they’ve helped me a lot. I’ve grown so much with them guys, and when you’re with a certain amount of, you know, when you’re with their group for five weeks straight, like, you build a different type of bond. And for me it’s not like worth it right because there’s so many guys that can fight,” he added.

In a previous interview, ‘Bully B’ has said that he would “rather go up to 185 pounds” if Makhachev really insists on moving up “and let him just take 170” so there’s not even a possibility they have to fight. Moreover, the welterweight champ feels that there is good reason for him and Makhachev to stay in their respective weight classes.

Belal Muhammad advises Islam Makhachev to take care of contenders in his division first

Belal Muhammad thinks Islam Makhachev should take a step back from his double-champ aspirations for now. ‘Bully B’, of course, is set to face Aussie Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 this May. Moreover, he still has a couple of guys to deal with. This includes 170lbs boogeyman Shavkat Rakhmonov and a probable rematch with Leon Edwards who is set to fight Sean Brady in London later this month.

And so does Makhachev, who has only fought two lightweights so far in his four title defenses. This includes 35-year-old Dustin Poirier who gave Makhachev a run for his money. The other was Renato Moicano, ranked #11 in the 155lbs rankings and wasn’t seen as a challenge anyway. Moreover, the Dagestani still has plenty of contenders to take care of at lightweight.

“There’s Jack [Della Maddalena], there’s Shavkat Rakhmonov, you know, there’s Buckley that’s right there on the come-up. So I have a lot of opponents that I haven’t even fought yet… I think he still has Arman [Tsarukyan], you still got the Charles [Oliveira] rematch, you got Ilia [Topuria] right there. So there are fights for both of us where you don’t have to bull rush,” he told Bisping and Felder.

What do you think about Belal Muhammad’s take on Belal Muhammad’s comments about a possible Islam Makhachev fight?