MONTREAL – UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad may move up to middleweight to face Dricus Du Plessis, whether or not he holds the division’s title.
Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) knows he has some more work to do within his own division, but that hasn’t stopped him from contemplating a move up to middleweight to challenge current middleweight champion Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC).
“I would literally take his shots, eat them, and then walk through them,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “Dricus – I know what I gotta do first: I gotta win a couple more fights, and then I can start talking about going up. We’ll see if he still has the belt by that time.”
Muhammad’s next test will come at UFC 315 on May 10 at Bell Centre against Jack Della Maddalena, who stepped in to replace an injured Shavkat Rakhmonov. A winner of 15 consecutive fights, including an undefeated run in the UFC, Della Maddalena (17-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) will get a massive opportunity as the division’s No. 4 promotionally ranked fighter due to the circumstances.
Du Plessis is expected to face Khamzat Chimaev in his next title defense, although the fight has yet to be officially booked. According to Muhammad, the title run for “Stillknocks” will end there, although their growing rivalry may still result in a showdown in the cage.
“He got a tough test in front of him with Khamzat,” Muhammad said. “I don’t think he’s going to get past Khamzat, but maybe I’ll still go up there anyways to smack him around. I love that energy when I get guys up there like, ‘Oh, he’s too small,’ or he’s too this. I get that even at 170. I’m not the biggest 170-pounder. I’m not the strongest or the fastest, but I’m the best. If I go up to middleweight, I’ll be the best as well.”
Naturally, Muhammad expects to excell against Della Maddalena, and says he will “overestimate” him in the lead up to their fight. If things go according to plan at UFC 315 and Muhammad records his first title defense, he won’t dwell too much on the future, because as he’s come to find out, it’s often times out of his hands.
“The landscape’s gonna happen regardless, of what we do or what we say,” Muhammad said. “I got a tough task in front of me with JDM, right? And we’ll go from there. I never like to look way too far ahead because you have all these plans, but then God has a plan. For me, my plan was to beat Shavkat in December, it didn’t happen. My plan was to beat Shavkat in May, didn’t happen. So now, we got somebody else, so my eyes are locked on him. He’s my bullseye right now and that’s all I’m worried about.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 315.