Belal Muhammad hopes to face Khamzat Chimaev or Sean Strickland at 185lbs if he doesn’t get what he wants at welterweight

Belal Muhammad is thinking about moving up to middleweight.

Muhammad is currently ranked fourth at welterweight but will not be getting the next title shot, as that will go to Colby Covington. Although he has talked about potentially fighting Kamaru Usman next, if that doesn’t happen, he is pondering a move to 185lbs to face either Khamzat Chimaev or Sean Strickland.

“At that point, I’m just going to go up to 185, honestly. I’m going to go look for Chimaev again. He moved up,” Muhammad said backstage at UFC 287. “I can fight at 185, I’m not worried about it. So I’ll move up, look for him, maybe he’ll finally come out and play that game. I made it to the top at 170, 185, I’ll do the same thing. If I’m not going to get a title fight, just give me the fights that really get me excited. Give me like a Sean Strickland, somebody that I dislike, somebody that I hate, that would be fun to punch in the mouth.”

When asked why he doesn’t like Strickland, Muhammad just says it’s because he’s not a likable guy.

“No not at all. Do you guys really like him when he comes in here? I don’t think he is a very likable guy,” Muhammad added.

Currently, neither Chimaev nor Strickland are booked to fight anyone at middleweight so perhaps Muhammad does move up to face one of them at 185lbs, especially if the UFC isn’t going to give him a title shot. Dana White revealed the promotion wanted to make Muhammad vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov next, but Belal shot that down as he doesn’t want to fight anyone behind him after TKO’ing Sean Brady back in October.

Belal Muhammad (22-3 and one No Contest) is currently riding a nine-fight unbeaten streak and is coming off the win over Brady. Prior to that, he scored three straight decision wins over Vicente Luque and Stephen Thompson and Demian Maia. He also headlined a Fight Night card against Leon Edwards with the fight ending in a No Contest.

Would you like to see Belal Muhammad fight either Khamzat Chimaev or Sean Strickland at 185lbs?