UFC: Belal Muhammad avenges KO loss to Vicente Luque, and calls out Colby Covington
- Chicago native reasserts himself as top welterweight contender with unanimous decision win over Brazilian on Saturday night in Las Vegas
- Muhammad unleashes a post-fight verbal volley at ‘coward’ Covington, the No 1 contender in their division
Belal Muhammad avenged one of the toughest losses of his career on Saturday night – and reasserted himself as a top welterweight contender in the process.
The 33-year-old Chicago native returned to action in the UFC Vegas 51 main event, taking on Brazil’s Vicente Luque. It was Muhammad’s second meeting with the 30-year-old “Silent Assassin” after a 79-second stoppage loss in 2016.
The second time around, Muhammad employed a clever game plan to outfight Luque over five rounds for scores of 49-46 (twice) and 48-47 from the cage-side judges.
“Let me get the big mouth ‘Karen’, Colby Covington, who’s out here calling out [lightweights],” Muhammad said in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier at the UFC Apex. “Come fight a real [welterweight], coward,”
In victory, Muhammad (21-3) is on an eight-fight unbeaten streak – the third longest active streak in the UFC’s jam-packed welterweight division.
He entered the cage as the UFC’s No 6 ranked welterweight. Having beaten Luque, who was ranked No 5 heading into the match-up, he can expect to crack the top 5 when the rankings are updated on Tuesday.
“This was my hump I had to get over,” Muhammad said post-fight. “He knocked me out. Now what do you got to say? I won. I knew it was going to be one of my hardest challenges.”
“It showed that I can do it all. I can wrestle with the best. I can strike with the best. I can grapple with the best.”
While Muhammad will leave Las Vegas with a reason to celebrate, his rival will be forced to return to the drawing board.
Luque (21-8-1) entered the UFC Vegas 51 main event with wins in his last four fights — including submissions wins over former welterweight king Tyron Woodley and top-10 contender Michael Chiesa.
The Brazilian had not lost a fight since a 2019 loss to two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
