At UFC 315, Belal Muhammad was set to finally make the first defense of his welterweight title.
The champion was originally scheduled to headline the last PPV card of 2024 in a clash with the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Instead, he closed the show at the Bell Center in Montreal earlier this month where Muhammad was defeated by Jack Della Maddalena.
‘Remember the Name’ was a sizable favorite heading into May 10 but the challenger produced a very impressive performance to win the 170-pound title in style.
Muhammad’s performance was criticized after a lot of people expected him to get his hand raised, including some popular content creators who were in attendance for the fight.
SteveWillDoIt loses out on 600k parlay as Jack Della Maddalena beats Belal Muhammad
For a lot of fans, the main event of UFC 315 overdelivered with an entertaining five-round contest between Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena.
It’s safe to say that the Nelk Boys didn’t have the same reaction, as a recent video posted on social media showed.
Stephen Deleonardis, also known as SteveWillDoIt, had put together a successful parlay where all he needed was for the welterweight champion to retain the title in order for him to win $600,000.
Deleonardis shouted at Muhammad from cage side, having only been sat several rows behind Dana White.
“Belal! You’re the last leg of my parlay! Don’t f— this up! I win 600!”
Having believed that Muhammad had done enough to get his hand raised via the scorecards, they were stunned when Della Maddalena was declared the victor.
On their way out of the venue, Nelk’s Kyle Forgeard stated that the fight was “rigged” in a reactionary comment.
Jeremy Stephens paid the price for saying that Belal Muhammad should’ve won
The vast majority of fans and fighters agreed that Jack Della Maddalena deserved to leave Montreal with the welterweight title following his performance.
One name that did argue for Belal Muhammad winning was Jeremy Stephens, who recently made his Octagon return in Des Moines.
Della Maddalena clearly didn’t think much of the comments that ‘Lil Heathen’ made on social media when he fired back at the veteran, labeling him as “Old punch drunk Jeremy”.
Only one of the 20 media scorecards that were submitted on MMA Decisions gave Muhammad the fight.