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Legendary boxing coach Teddy Atlas is all praise for Belal Muhammad following the latter's impressive unanimous decision victory over Demian Maia at UFC 263.
Atlas has compared the No.12-ranked welterweight to arguably the best defensive boxer to grace the squared circle, Floyd Mayweather. Hailing Muhammad for stuffing numerous takedown attempts by Demian Maia in their featured bout tonight, Atlas wrote on Twitter:
"UFC, Floyd may be the defensive King in Boxing but when it comes to defending takedowns in MMA Belal Muhammad is the man and the Mountain."
Belal Muhammad's impressive takedown defense against the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace was on full display tonight. Muhammad used technical striking to shut down Maia's takedown offense. Following a dominating five-round technical war, the judges ruled the fight 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28, in Muhammad's favor.
Belal Muhammad walks out with the Palestanian flag at UFC 263
Belal Muhammad has been vocal on social media about his support for Palestine during the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. The Muslim fighter was born and raised in the United States to Palestinian parents, who fled their country to evade atrocities.
In a recent interview with MMA Mania, Muhammad opened up about the need for the United States to take a strong stance against violence in the Israel-Palestine region:
“They need somebody to really step up and put an end to this. You can’t have the President of the United States saying, ‘Well, they [Israel] have a right to defend themselves from Hamas.’ When you say stuff like that, it puts it out there to the regular Joe Schmo that doesn’t really know what’s going on. I think the biggest thing with people is that they’re misinformed,” Muhammad asserted. “Not a lot of people know what’s really going on there. You don’t have the mainstream media really pushing the story of what’s happening and the history of it.”
To condemn the fatalities in his native country, Muhammad was seen waving the flag of Palestine during his walkout at UFC 263:
