Robert Whittaker expected more takedowns out of Belal Muhammad at UFC 315.
After getting past his last 10 opponents with his wrestling and pressure, the UFC Welterweight Champion finally met his match over the weekend when he took on Australia’s Jack Della Maddalena.
It wasn’t the Belal Muhammad we were used to seeing as the champion mainly fought Della Maddalena in the stand-up, taking down Maddalena significantly less than past opponents Stephen Thompson and Leon Edwards, who are top-tier strikers in their own right.
Across five rounds, Muhammad attempted 9 takedowns, only getting Della Maddalena down for 3. In a fun back-and-forth fight on the feet, Muhammad would lose his title by unanimous decision.
Confident in his ‘Canelo hands’, some suggest Muhammad’s title loss was a byproduct of his ego. After all, Muhammad claimed before the fight he wouldn’t need to shoot for a single takedown on Della Maddalena.
Robert Whittaker calls Belal Muhammad ‘ridiculous’ for trying to prove he had better striking than Jack Della Maddalena
Compared to Ronda Rousey in his title loss, Muhammad’s game plan caught some flak from Australia’s first UFC Champion Robert Whittaker.
“I expected more takedowns,” the former middleweight champ said of Muhammad on the MMArcade Podcast.
“When he mixed in the striking to bring Jack onto it, to mix into his shots, they were clean every time.
“Now why didn’t we see more of that?” Whittaker said of Muhammad’s takedowns.
“I can’t help but feel like Belal was trying to make a point striking with Jack for the first three rounds. If that’s the case, that is ridiculous.”
Whittaker continued, commending his fellow Australian JDM.
“Jack is amazing at that mid-range boxing. One of my [keys to] victory for Jack was to embrace the dogfight and make Belal pay for every step he went forward and every time he walked away, which Jack did unbelievably.”
Robert Whittaker says Belal Muhammad abandoned style which won him UFC title
Depending on his opponent, Muhammad changed up his wrestling-heavy strategy a few times during his 11-fight run to the title.
Facing off with Demian Maia, Muhammad kept the fight standing to negate Maia’s submission threat. In a title eliminator with Gilbert Burns, Muhammad completely shut out Burns in the striking with no takedown attempts needed.
Muhammad put on arguably the best performance of his career against Leon Edwards by mixing in his grappling and striking seamlessly.
Whittaker says this version of Muhammad was nowhere to be found at UFC 315.
“What brought Belal to the title and made him champion was the fact that he could punch,” Whittaker explained.
“He could punch, punch, shoot, punch, punch, punch…
“He’s not Gilbert Burns on the ground. He’s not a guy that when you get when he gets you on your back, he’s gonna start working those tricky submissions, and you’re in a very dangerous spot.
“He is just that ‘game’. He’s that punch, punch, shoot, punch, punch, shoot [style] and we didn’t see that,” the former champ said of Muhammad’s performance against Jack Della Maddalena.