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#4 Welterweight: Lyman Good vs. Belal Muhammad

Belal Muhammad has been flying under the radar at 170lbs

These days, the UFC seems to be chock-full of fighters who aren’t necessarily in title contention or highly popular with the fans, but are still flying under the radar and putting together strong records. Both Good and Muhammad fall into this category.

A former Bellator champion – albeit way back in 2010 – Good arrived in the UFC in 2015. ‘The Cyborg’ has gone 3-2 since then, with a couple of lengthy absences, one enforced by USADA, preventing him from gaining any real momentum.

Interestingly, the USADA ban – which came when Good tested positive for anabolic steroids apparently contained in a contaminated supplement – forced him out of a fight at UFC 205 with none other than Muhammad.

Muhammad – who sports the brilliant nickname of ‘Remember the Name’ – has much more UFC experience than his opponent here. He’s gone 7-3 since debuting in 2016, and his more recent losses came to Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal, a pair of fighters who have since broken into title contention.

The biggest knock on Muhammad is probably his lack of finishing ability. A well-rounded fighter who can both wrestle well and strike decently, ‘Remember the Name’ has only picked up two finishes in his UFC career, and only 5 overall in his 16 career wins.

Good on the other hand is a much more dangerous fighter when it comes to finishing opponents, but whether he can manage to catch Muhammad – who has an iron jaw – with any concussive blows is another thing entirely.

The issue I see for Good in this fight comes down to the fact that despite having a slight reach advantage, he doesn’t necessarily fight like a longer striker. That means he’ll have to get inside boxing range to do his damage, and that risks him being grabbed by Muhammad.

And if Muhammad can get the former Bellator champ to the ground, it probably doesn’t bode well. All of Good’s losses – aside from a contentious decision loss to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos – have come when fighters have been able to ground him.

Sure, Muhammad is no Demian Maia – who choked out Good in February 2019 – but he’s a very capable grappler who’s heavy from the top and knows how to keep a foe down and beat them up.

Does Good have the striking power to knock Muhammad out? Sure, but then so did Curtis Millender, Tim Means and Randy Brown, and they were all outworked and outpointed by him. I’m not convinced ‘The Cyborg’ has good enough takedown defense to stop Muhammad from getting hold of him, and so I’m going with a decision win for ‘Remember the Name’.

The Pick: Muhammad via unanimous decision