At UFC 315, Belal Muhammad will make the first defense of his welterweight title after his reign was interrupted by an injury.
After beating Leon Edwards at UFC 304 in July, the new titleholder was set to return later on in 2024 to face the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Muhammad was unfortunately forced to withdraw from his UFC 310 matchup with ‘Nomad’, leaving Rakhmonov to face and defeat Ian Machado Garry instead.
‘Remember the Name’ has since overcome this injury but he will now face Jack Della Maddalena after Rakhmonov was unable to make the turnaround for May 10.
Injuries have been a big factor at the top of the welterweight division but things could have been far worse for the division’s current champion in a different scenario.
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Belal Muhammad details the extent of his toe infection and how he was lucky to avoid it being more severe
After he shared details of the toe injury and infection that he was battling ahead of UFC 310, it was clear that this wasn’t a setback that Belal Muhammad could’ve fought through.
The 36-year-old spoke about the setback in more detail during a recent appearance on Demetrious Johnson’s MIGHTYcast where he recalled what he was told by his doctor.
Muhammad said that the infection was so significant because of the injury he suffered which made it harder to treat and accelerated the process of it becoming more severe.
“Since it got infected and the toe was broken, the infection went straight into the bone and got in there quicker. So it spread a lot faster.
“If it was just on the skin, then it would’ve been easier to deal with it and the antibiotics would’ve worked and it wouldn’t have spread as fast but he said since the toe was broken, it went into the toe and it went into the bone right away. Then, it was starting to spread so he had to get in there right away.”
Fortunately for Muhammad, as he was told by his doctor, he had two things in his favor which helped him to fight the infection and make a full recovery.
He was quick to address the issue and as a professional athlete, his body was strong enough to fight it.
Muhammad’s doctor told him that many people who suffer from a similar infection are not so lucky with the only way to stop it from continuing to spread being to remove the entire area.
“He was like, ‘If you’d waited a couple more days, it would have grown up the foot. Since you’re healthy, luckily most the people that have bone infections are diabetics and a lot of the time I’m cutting it right away.’
“‘I’m either cutting a toe, cutting a foot – it’s coming off. But, luckily for you, we’ll give you four weeks, hopefully the antibiotics will kick in, it’ll work and we’ll see it but I see you being healthy and your body fighting it.’ Thank God it was.”
Belal Muhammad isn’t short on challengers if he comes through UFC 315
As a result of his injury ahead of UFC 310, Belal Muhammad now has a whole row of potential opponents that are lining up to fight him if he’s able to get past Jack Della Maddalena on May 10.
Rebooking the matchup with Shavkat Rakhmonov makes a lot of sense but there are several other contenders who have recorded big wins since ‘Nomad’ last competed.
Not to mention the Islam Makhachev factor that is hanging over Saturday night’s main event with the lightweight champion potentially moving up a division in the near future.
Muhammad won’t be looking past his first challenger but there are several big names that are all waiting for this fight to finish so that they can shoot their shot.