Belal Muhammad wants Kamzat Chimaev to make Sean Strickland pay for his comments.
Strickland (30-7 MMA, 17-7 UFC) only needs one victory over Anthony Hernandez to challenge middleweight champion Chimaev (15-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in the main event of UFC 328 on May 9 in Newark, N.J. (Paramount+).
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The former UFC welterweight champion believes that Nasoldin Imavov, who has won five consecutive victories, has lost his chance to win the championship.
“Imavov is terrible,” Muhammad said on his YouTube channel. “You have to feel for him. I thought he earned the title. I thought he was going to get the title, but I think the trash talk, the stupidity, and the times we live in now, Strickland earned the title the way he did. You know it’s going to make people want to talk, people want to watch, especially with Chimaev. You know they’re going to go back and forth.”
Muhammad had had his fair share of feuds with Strickland in the past and wanted nothing more than to see Chimaev rule over him.
“What I’m excited about is seeing Chimaev crush him and go through him,” Muhammad said. “I think that’s what it is. I think he’s going to be able to take him down, control him, and I’m hoping to cut him open a little bit, make him bleed a little bit, and break him down mentally and knock him out.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad: Sean Strickland earns UFC title shot on his own