From underdog to UFC champion: Belal Muhammad dedicates win to Palestine

It's been a whirlwind few weeks for Belal "Remember the Name" Muhammad, the freshly crowned UFC welterweight champion of the world. The 36-year-old Palestinian American beat Leon Edwards on July 27 during a mixed Ultimate Fighting Championship martial arts rematch in Manchester, England.

His first bout against Edwards in 2021 ended in a draw, after Muhammad was accidentally poked in the eye.

During his coronation, Muhammad credited his Palestinian heritage for his success. Scores of community members in a Chicago suburb gathered over the weekend to cheer him on during a victory parade.

TRT World's Sumayya Tobah sat down with him after the parade to talk about this historic win, the war on Gaza and his advice for those who are struggling to accomplish their goals.

TRT World: I want to take you back to 2021 after Edwards won and you had an injury. Three years later, how were you able to build yourself up to get back in the ring and do it again? Like, what is that process in building yourself up?

Belal Muhammad: I mean that moment obviously was like the hardest moment I probably dealt with just because it was my first main event. It was the first time getting a ranked fighter (to fight me). That was like the hardest thing to get, is those ranked fighters.

Nobody wanted to fight me, so we took that fight short notice, after a fight before that. And also before that, I had three surgeries on my eye, and I had multiple eye surgeries with laser and retinal detachment. So it wasn't like the first time I got injured there.

So fight happens, I get poked in the eye, can't open it, can't see anything. Think you're blind. And the biggest thing was losing the opportunity in your first main event. You have it in your head, 'what's going to happen? You're going to win it, then you're going to fight for the belt. Then you know the world's going to know who you are.'

But you didn't get anything out of it. It's like a bad taste in your mouth. Whenever you get a fight, you either want to win or you want to lose, but no matter what, you want a result.

So to have no contest and just pretend like that, that was the heartbreaking thing. So after that, obviously I went to the doctor, got healed up, and went right back on the wagon.

We tried to get the rematch. He wouldn't give it to us. He ignored us. He said, you know, it wasn't worth his time, played it off like we were nothing. So we went out there, fought six ranked fighters, top 10 guys.

Nobody's ever done that in the UFC who wasn't a champion already. I had to take the long road to get to the title, the longer road to wait for the title shot and then finally get the rematch with Leon this time.

Bigger stage, bigger venue, his home country, in front of his fans, in front of his people on his time. And we went out there, dominated them. So now that I think back at it, everything happens for a reason. We were on a smaller stage in the apex.

There were no fans there. My family couldn't come to watch it. Nobody was even really paying attention to it. This time, the main event. Pay Per View from Chicago. Nobody expects you to go all the way down there, all the way to Manchester, and I took it from him in front of his own people.

TRT World: It was a huge moment. I was watching, and I know all of my friends were watching. Friends who don't usually watch the UFC were watching because you obviously are very passionate about being Palestinian American, and over the last 10 months, you've been extremely vocal about what's happening in Gaza. And if you could take me to that moment (of victory). What were you feeling in that moment?

Belal Muhammad: In that moment, honestly, it was just surreal. Because for me, it was still like, it's not real yet. Even now, like it hasn't hit me that we're real champions, we're the best in the world, because you dream about it, you think about how you're going to react, how it's going to feel.

But for me, it was just proving all the haters and doubters wrong, proving Leon's team wrong, because I had to live with him for three years saying that he would have beat me in that fight. He would have dominated me. He was looking good, yada yada yada.

But for myself, I know what I'm capable of. I know my team knows what I'm capable of, so I knew if I had that chance, I would show them how great I am. So let's go out there and dominate them and beat them like that. That was my goal. I wasn't even thinking about the belt. It was just beating him and showing the world that I was better than him.

TRT World: And in your speech afterwards, you said this is for the people in Palestine who are dealing with so much more. And I could see it at the parade, like all of the flags, all of the Palestinian pride to see your community be so proud of you. How does that feel?

Belal Muhammad: I never saw myself as being like this type of symbol or being at this level. At first, it was just like I'm fighting for myself. And then when you start getting messages from people from Palestine and little things here and there when I first started.

Then it starts getting more and more, and then you start realising that other people are seeing you as that symbol of Palestine. Hey, what is this? What's going on there, even other fighters that didn't even know about it, especially after October 7, like, what's the real story? What's happening there?

And they're coming to me because they see me as that guy, the only one in the UFC carrying that flag, and they know I'm from there and how I represent it, so they're asking me those questions, and I'm educating them on it.

And for even myself, you want to educate yourself even more so you can answer those questions. So I know that I'm put here for a reason. You know, God puts everybody into a place for a reason. God makes everything happen for a reason.

And I think for me to have this type of platform, to be at this stage, to be the best in the world right now, there's never been another Arab champion, another Arab that got to this height. And when you think about it, there's not that many athletes like us and people were putting me on that pedestal with Muhammad Ali, those guys, and I never thought that I would be there, but Alhamdulillah, we're there now.

So I'm not going to take it for granted anytime I get a chance to speak on Palestine. I'm going to speak on it, because I said it after the fight. They're the real fighters. They're the real ones who are fighting for their lives. I'm living in luxury. I could sit there and turn on lights whenever I want, use electricity, drink water, eat and we all take that for granted.

Everybody here because it just comes easy to us. But the people over there, seeing what they're going through every single day, and seeing them still smile, seeing them still saying that, Alhamdulillah, no matter what happens, it just makes you feel kind of sad at yourself, because some of the stuff that you complain about, some of the stuff that you cry about - I complain about random stuff, right? And then you take all this stuff for granted.

But not anymore now, because I think about them every day. I see them every day, and it makes me work that much harder in the room every day, in the practice room, in the training room, and I don't take my foot off the gas at all, even when people said, 'oh, he's 36 years old, there hasn't been a champion or a guy over 36 who won a title and they said he's not gonna be able to do it.'

But I know that I'm different from everybody else. I know none of them guys have my mentality, none of them guys have my push, none of them guys have my mental strength and I get that from the people from Palestine. I get that from seeing them every day. I get that from knowing that when I win, they went and I know I gotta work that much harder for them.

TRT World: I'm really glad you mentioned mental strength, because something you've said in the past was about training, both mentally and spiritually. Could you expand on that a little bit?

Belal Muhammad: I think being Muslims, spirituality is the biggest thing for us, right? We pray five times a day. And I think a lot of people in training and fighting, they forget about that. They're all looking for these mental coaches. They're all looking for that one up, that handicap, because we all know how to punch, we all know how to lift weights, we all know how to eat the right foods, but mentally, you got to be locked in, because you could have the best camp of your life.

You could be in the best shape of your life. But I know so many guys who get there at fight night and it doesn't click for them, because the mental game is 90 percent of it for everybody. Many of these guys have way more talent than me, way more strength than me, way more ability and agility than me, but none of them have a stronger mentality than me.

Spiritually, I think I'm so locked in and understanding and having God so close to me that I know that no matter what happens, it's God's plan, so I accept it. So I don't go in there with a fear of 'man, if I lose, man, why did this happen to me?'

It happens for a reason. I've had many losses in my career. I had three losses in my career, but I realised afterward that it happened for a reason, and I gained something from every one of those losses. After every one of the losses, I knew stuff that I had to fix. I fixed this, I fixed that, I fixed this, and then it just made me that much of a better fighter.

So now that I'm where I'm at, now I look back at it and be like, God made that happen for a reason. I didn't ever want to lose. I wish I would be undefeated, dominated everybody, but God put me in that position for a reason. Maybe I wasn't ready for that position at that time. Now that I'm a champion, now I'm ready for that position. I'm ready for the role I'm able to play right now.

TRT World: Because you do represent kind of the Palestinian American community or Palestinians on your platform a lot, we're heading into an election year, what would you like to see from whoever takes over the White House come November?

Belal Muhammad: Obviously, for me, it's who's going to end this? I wouldn't even call it a war right now. It's a genocide. Who's going to speak on it, who's not going to be afraid to put a stop to it, because that's all that matters.

There's women, children, men. They are dying every single day, and the world is just letting it happen. The world is just watching it. Every single day. There's a new death, there's a new death toll, there's a new count, and there's new tragedies.

So if one of these candidates says, 'We're gonna stop it, we're gonna try to fix it.' That's who I'm gonna vote for. That's pretty much it.

TRT World: Do you have any last words for anybody who looks up to you, or anybody who might wanna become a fighter, anything like that?

Belal Muhammad: Don't become a fighter. It's hard. But if you do, you gotta have a different mentality. You gotta want it more than anybody else. You gotta block out anybody who's gonna tell you you can't do it because there is no money in at first, there is nothing in it.

But you know, your goals, your dreams, your aspirations, there's nobody's gonna be cheering for you when you're running in the streets. Nobody's gonna be cheering for you when you're sitting there at practice, bleeding, sweating, when you're sitting there crying to yourself, why did I lose or why did I get beat up, or why did this happen to me, or during an injury, or anything like that.

Mentally you gotta be locked in. Mentally you gotta be ready to go further than anybody else, and if you're not willing to do that, don't be a fighter. Thank you so much.