Belal Muhammad received some good news this week regarding his return to action.
The current UFC welterweight champion announced he has been medically cleared to resume training roughly one month after announcing he had a bone infection in his foot, which kept him off this weekend’s anticipated UFC 310 card.
The 36-year-old became the organization's 170-pound titleholder in July when he defeated Leon Edwards by unanimous decision at UFC 304 in England. Muhammad was originally scheduled to make his first title defence in the UFC 310 main event against Shavkat Rakhmonov before withdrawing from the event.
Rakhmonov, 18-0 with 18 finishes, will instead face fellow undefeated rising 170-pound star Ian Machado Garry (15-0) in a five-round co-main event with the winner in all likelihood facing Muhammad for the title in the first half of 2025.
A men’s flyweight title fight between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura was tabbed as the new headliner for the event that takes place Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“These last six weeks I’ve been watching a lot of tape and studying both these guys and my official unbiased breakdown is that I break both of them,” Muhammad wrote on social media referencing Rakhmonov and Machado Garry.
Muhammad 24-3 with one no-contest during his professional mixed martial arts career. His 11-fight unbeaten streak dates back to 2019 with the lone blemish during that time being a 2021 no-contest that ended due to Edwards inadvertently poking Muhammad in the eye rendering him unable to continue.
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