JRE MMA Show #162 with Belal Muhammad

Joe Rogan (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. All right, what's up? Good to see you, man. Congratulations.

Belal Muhammad (0:15)

Good to see you, brother. Appreciate you, man.

Joe Rogan (0:16)

The champ is here. Everybody has to shut the fuck up now.

Belal Muhammad (0:20)

That's the best part right now, is now I can just talk as much as possible, and they can't say nothing.

Joe Rogan (0:26)

They can't say nothing. There were so many doubters, so many naysayers, so many people did want you to get that title shot. It was so unfair, dude. It was really wild. It was wild to see. It really was. It really was because I'm like, are you guys not watching his fights? What the fuck are you guys seeing? I do not understand when people don't appreciate excellence. I really don't get it. The Shawn Brady fight, you see that fight, you don't think this dude is a fucking problem for everybody. You see the Wonder Boy fight, see all your fights.

Belal Muhammad (0:58)

And all of them, they've been different, right? Like with the Shawn Brady, all I did was stand up. I didn't shoot one takedown on him. Gilbert Burns, I didn't shoot one takedown. Wonder Boy, I took him down. Obviously, I'm not gonna strike with a kickboxer. So I've showed you guys all forms of martial arts. People still hate it. They're still hating.

Joe Rogan (1:13)

So crazy.

Belal Muhammad (1:15)

Even with the Leon fight.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

So even for this fight, I was like, bro. I think they have to shut the fuck up. I think everybody has to shut the fuck up and just recognize what you did because you put so much pressure on him standing up. You were in his face from the very first second of the very first round. You just advanced and you could tell he wanted that space and you could tell it was a different experience than what he thought he was going to get from you.

Belal Muhammad (1:39)

Yeah. I mean, when we saw him against Colby and him against Usman, the third fight, we saw that he's expert at distance. He manages the distance. He puts it at his own pace. So we were like, bro, we got to make this dirtiest fight the hardest fight for him. So we got to step right away. So even when the ref was like looking to me, he told me to back up, when he looked at Leon and said, you ready, you ready? I'm walking forward right away. So I'm right in his face before he even like looks up. So I was like, I got to get him on his back foot right away, make him uncomfortable. And I knew he's not good uncomfortable. None of these, no strikers really good moving backwards. But I knew Leon specifically, I don't want to be in his kick range. I don't want him at his slow pace like he did against Kobe and these guys where he kicks, moves, kicks, moves. I'm like, I'm going to be in his face nonstop, punching him in his mouth and taking him down whenever I see an opening.

Joe Rogan (2:26)

The Kobe fight I thought was going to be different. I think Kobe broke his foot real early in that fight.

Belal Muhammad (2:33)

I mean, I think Kobe sucks, but for me, I think that Kobe wasn't, he's just not a good striker. Even with the fights that we see that he was really good at, it was just because he put a good pace on all these guys. And he dictated the pace with RDA and Robbie Lawler, all these guys, but none of those guys really had that type of cardio. When we saw him against Usman, Usman showed you he could keep up that pace with Kobe, and then Kobe can't take him down, so it ended up being like a kickboxing match. For Leon, he knew if he dictated the pace with Kobe, Kobe wasn't going to be able to do anything to him. And I don't think, the time off, I think hurt Kobe's distance management because his shot takedowns were terrible in that fight. He wasn't managing it, he was just shooting it.

Joe Rogan (3:15)

To be honest though, I think the foot had a big factor. I think he broke his foot. I think Leon checked the kick real early on, or he kicked low and hit the shin and broke his foot.

Hit the knee, something. I don't remember exactly what happened, but apparently in the first round he broke his foot. That, you know, if you can't move against Leon, you're in real trouble.