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No. 13 ranked UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad is set to go up against No. 3 ranked Leon Edwards in the main event of Saturday night's UFC Vegas 21.
Born July 9, 1988 in Chicago, Illinois, Belal Muhammad is an American by nationality. He was born to Palestinian parents and is extremely proud of his roots. Belal Muhammad carries the flag of Palestine into the octagon for every fight and also shows it off by wrapping it around his shoulders after every win. In his own words, Belal Muhammad is never one to "shy away from representing his people."
The former Titan FC welterweight champion kicked off his MMA career in 2012 with a TKO win. He went on to achieve a 9-0 record before losing to Alan Jouban during his UFC debut.
Also read: 3 interesting facts that you have to know about Belal Muhammad
Belal Muhammad's UFC record
Shortly after knocking out Steve Carl at Titan FC 38, Belal Muhammad was signed by UFC in 2016.
In July 2016 (his first fight with the promotion), Belal Muhammad dropped a decision to Alan Jouban. After knocking out Augusto Montano in his second fight, Muhammad lost in his third outing to Vicente Luque at the historic UFC 205 pay-per-view. This was the event where Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez to become the UFC lightweight champion and the first ever "champ-champ" in UFC history.
Following this setback, Belal Muhammad went on to build a four-fight winning streak, defeating Randy Brown, Jordan Mein, Tim Means, and Chance Recountre. He then lost to Geoff Neal. However, putting that loss behind him, Belal Muhammad has once again garnered a four-fight winning streak in UFC.
In his last outing, Muhammad went through Dhiego Lima at UFC 258 last month, picking up a unanimous decision victory at the end of three rounds.
Despite having fought only a month ago, Belal Muhammad took this next fight on short notice when UFC Vegas 21 lost one half of its main event in the form of Khamzat Chimaev. After having been booked for a third time, the matchup of Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chiimaev fell apart yet again as the latter was still suffering from lingering effects of COVID-19.
Without other top names to step in, Belal Muhammad happily took the fight. Winning this fight could propel him up the rankings and closer to a title shot.
