UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Peña shared a head-scratching take on Belal Muhammad’s UFC 315 defeat.
Belal Muhammad‘s UFC welterweight title reign came to an abrupt end, at the hands of Jack Della Maddalena, last month at UFC 315 in Montreal. In a ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate, Maddalena and Muhammad went the full distance, with Maddalena walking away with a unanimous decision victory.
Maddalena is now set for a likely showdown with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev for his next fight. Makhachev will vacate the lightweight belt later this month, opening the door to a matchup with the newly-crowned welterweight champion.
Muhammad has taken the stunning UFC 315 loss in stride, despite hearing a lot from his detractors after the fight. But despite Muhammad’s approach, his teammate believes the judges got it wrong at UFC 315.
Julianna Peña believes Belal Muhammad ‘got robbed’ of a win at UFC 315
Muhammad and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Julianna Peña are longtime training partners in Chicago. Peña was a key presence in Muhammad’s fight camp for UFC 315, and believes Muhammad did enough to get the nod on the scorecards and retain the UFC welterweight belt, contrary to popular opinion.
During her UFC 316 media day press conference, Peña explained how she felt Muhammad was wronged by the judges at UFC 315.
“I didn’t think Belal lost. I watched that fight and was like ‘Yeah, we got it! He won!’, and then when they called it for the other guy, kudos to him, but I thought Belal won,” Peña said.
“I didn’t really give him any pep talk except for the fact that I said ‘Sorry my brother, you got robbed’.”
Muhammad hasn’t explicitly said he felt he deserved the win at UFC 315 after his performance, but is looking forward to a return to the Octagon later this year. As for Peña, she’s set to face Kayla Harrison in the UFC 316 co-main event this Saturday in Newark.
Peña wasn’t the only prominent name who felt Muhammad deserved to retain his belt. Jeremy Stephens, who returned to the Octagon last month at UFC Des Moines, scored the fight in Muhammad’s favor despite rooting for Maddalena to win.
Belal Muhammad got into it with a UFC 316 star just days before the card
Ahead of his teammate’s return at UFC 316, Muhammad got into it with another top name on the card this week after some brutal media day trash talk. UFC welterweight Kevin Holland admitted he was happy to see Muhammad lose at UFC 315, prompting a heated back-and-forth between them on social media.
Holland will face Vicente Luque this Saturday at UFC 316 in his return to the Octagon. He defeated Gunnar Nelson earlier this year at UFC London.
While it’s uncertain if Muhammad will be in the women’s bantamweight champion’s corner this weekend, the former welterweight titleholder continues to make headlines.
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