‘Name’ Drops Verdict On UFC Return, Stymies Shavkat

Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Newly-crowned UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad was expected to make his first 170-pound title defense against undefeated division contender Shavkat Rakhmonov atop the UFC 310 pay-per-view (PPV) card next month in Las Vegas; however, a nasty bone infection bounced “Remember the Name” from the “Sin City” lineup.

Rakhmonov was quick to call for an interim title fight while the champ recovers.

“I could see them trying to do something with Shavkat, but he’s calling for an interim title fight and I’m like, interim title fight? Bro, it’s six weeks, not six months that I’m off,” Muhammad told Jon Anik. “But even for myself, if they want to just do that to make it a main event ... I mean, I don’t really care about it if they want to make it a title fight regardless because they know who has the real belt. So for me, I know who my next opponent is gonna be. If he wants to wait, it’s gonna be us.”

Muhammad is not the only one against (another) substitute strap.

“We’ve got to stop with the interim title, there’s no need to make an interim title,” former UFC heavyweight champion and current color commentator, Daniel Cormier, said during the UFC Edmonton Fan Q&A. “Belal just won the belt in June or July? Back when I was fighting, if you got hurt, you had a year before they made an interim champion. Now, it’s like people are calling for interim titles — you can almost will yourself into an interim title championship at this point.”

That may explain the motivation behind this pointless title fight.

No word yet on how the promotion plans to fill the UFC 310 headliner, but we can say with some degree of certainty that it won’t be this highly-anticipated title fight. In addition, six weeks puts Muhammad back inside the cage around January, assuming his current recovery timeline continues on schedule.

UFC 311 in Los Angeles does not yet have a championship main event.