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The UFC is, once again, at the center of this edition of Sportskeeda's MMA News Roundup. An MMA legend recently took the time to praise Belal Muhammad despite the latter's recent welterweight title loss. Meanwhile, Sean O'Malley recently shared his thoughts on his upcoming clash with Merab Dvalishvili.
And in other news, the once great Tony Ferguson provided the MMA world with an update on his future with the GFL.
Belal Muhammad draws praise from a UFC legend
Fresh after losing his welterweight strap to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in his first-ever title defense, Belal Muhammad has refused to hang his head. Instead, he is aiming to rebound against Shavkat Rakhmonov, for which the legendary Chael Sonnen praised him.
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Sonnen spoke glowingly of Muhammad to The Schmo, believing that all champions should, win or lose, conduct themselves like 'Remember the Name.'
"The best thing he's done is he called for his next fight. He did the exact same thing in a loss that he would have done in a win, all the way to the opponent. If he had won that fight, he would have called for a fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov. He lost the fight, and he's still calling for a fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov. That's a great example Belal set for everybody."
Check out Chael Sonnen praising Belal Muhammad (7:11):
Sean O'Malley predicts his UFC 316 rematch with Merab Dvalishvili
UFC 316 takes place next Saturday, and will be headlined by a rematch between Sean O'Malley and defending bantamweight titleholder Merab Dvalishvili. For his part, 'Sugar' believes he's well-equipped to win, saying as much on The Jim Rome Show. He said:
"He's open to getting knocked out. I'm very confident that I can put his lights out, I'm also confident I can beat him in a five-round fight. There's definitely a possibility of me putting his lights out, but I'm ready to go for 25 minutes. I'm ready to have to dig deep."
Check out Sean O'Malley's thoughts on Merab Dvalishvili (1:04:19) below:
The first outing between O'Malley and Dvalishvili was a convincing win for the Georgian star, whose work rate and wrestling overwhelmed O'Malley across five rounds.
Tony Ferguson sheds light on his career
Despite the lengthy losing streak he's on, Tony Ferguson isn't quite yet ready to retire. In fact, he still has hope for the GFL and a matchup with Dillon Danis.
"Dylan? Yeah, dude. I wanna compete against him. Look, when GFL, I'm telling you, it's not over, it's just when you have a product, you heard them on 'The Ultimate Fighter,' it takes f*cking time."
Check out Tony Ferguson's thoughts on the GFL (4:38):
Unfortunately for Ferguson, there's been little news regarding the GFL's status. Many believed the promotion's promises to be too good to be true, but 'El Cucuy' is still holding out hope.
