JRE MMA Show #134 with Belal Muhammad

Jamie (0:06)

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:13)

How are you doing?

Belal Muhammad (0:14)

Good, man. How have you been?

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Very good to see you.

Belal Muhammad (0:17)

Excited, man. It's one of those milestones that you achieve. It's like, I get to talk to Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

That's hilarious, man. Well, it's an honor to have you on. I appreciate you.

You're in a great spot right now, man. You're on the run.

You're there. You're at the fucking door. Yeah.

Belal Muhammad (0:37)

It's been a long road. It's like when I look back at it, where I've been, where I'm at right now, I still don't even believe it. But it's like, I still need to get over that hurdle where people still don't believe in you, people still looking for excuses of why you beat this guy, why you beat that guy, why you don't deserve the title shot.

Joe Rogan (0:54)

But isn't that always the case? And then all of a sudden, you're the fucking man. Like that was Charles Olivera, right? For the longest time, people thought, oh, he falls apart, he falls apart. And then all of a sudden, everybody had to go, you know what, he's the fucking man, you know? Until Islam got ahold of him, he was like a completely different entity than he was like back when Cubs Swanson knocked him out.

Belal Muhammad (1:15)

Yeah, when you look at the way his career is, the way, like people don't give him enough credit for that and the way he dominated some of the best guys once he was in his title reign.

Joe Rogan (1:23)

When he beat Gagey, the way he beat Chandler, I mean, my God.

Belal Muhammad (1:27)

But you mean now people know how good Islam is. People are respecting him the same way. I feel like I'm not getting respected. And then now when he plays with him like that, beats him on the feet and then finishes him on the ground. I think that now people are realizing, all right, well, Islam isn't all talk. Like when DC and all of them are saying that, like he's gonna be better than Habib.

Now they're realizing it.

Joe Rogan (1:46)

Anybody said it was all talk is a fool.

If you watch the way he submitted Drew Dober, he just smooshed him.

I'm like, there was no getting up there. It was just a matter of time before he put the smoosh down on him.

Belal Muhammad (2:00)

Training with those guys. I tell people, I'm like, if you never train with the guys from Dagestan, from somebody on their team, you don't know what it feels like. It's not regular jiu-jitsu. It's like quicksand where you're in there, you think you're moving, you're looking for a way out.

You know, I'm really good at flow rolling and everything. And I'm training with them at my last camp, and I'm like, I cannot move with these guys. None of them, like everybody on their team has that same style, same pressure on top.

And I'm feeling it, and I'm like, I need to change what I do in Chicago. I need to change what I'm doing, because these guys are so dominant with the way they play, the way they grapple. It's like, they're gonna beat everybody. Nobody's gonna mess with them.

Joe Rogan (2:36)

What is the difference?

Belal Muhammad (2:39)

Well, for the mentality, I think is a big thing, too.

You know, when you're rolling with somebody new, you'll get a flow roll with them, you'll play around to see how they're feeling.

With them, they don't have that at all. I'm not gonna lose a round, I'm not gonna lose a minute when I'm going against you. If I'm gonna, this is our first time rolling with each other, you know, I'm on my back, I'm going to my back, starting on my back, and I'm like, all right, let's move. So I'm trying to play like guard, trying to go for armbar or anything like that. And then Khabib's just yelling to me, get up, we're not playing jujitsu. This is get up, this is MMA. We're not playing jujitsu, you're on your back, you're losing.

And their mentality is, let me hold you down, because I'm not gonna lose this round. I'm gonna stay on top of you. I don't care if, I mean, you're guard the whole time, you're not just staying on top of you with pressure, you just lost. Even though the round's over, I'm sitting there like, man, we haven't done anything. It's like, I'm just laying on my back, you haven't done any pressure, no ground upon or anything. But I just lost, because I'm on my back. And I figured that's their mentality. They don't wanna lose any round in practice, they don't wanna lose any minute in grappling. If they get taken down, they're popping right back up. It's not, let me get taken down, let me play on my back a little bit, let me flow a little bit like that. No, it's rough, hard. And I think that's what transfers their mentality into the cage, when there's no, there's no, let me warm up here. It's like right into it. Can be goes in there, he grabs you, he holds you down.