The no. 5 ranked UFC Welterweight fighter Belal Muhammad looks back on his first clash with Vicente Luque in 2016 which took place on UFC 205 inside the famous MSG arena (Madison Square Garden) in New York.
The above mentioned UFC Pay Per View (PPV) holds a very special place in the hearts of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans all around the world. On that night in 2016, Conor McGregor was crowned as the first double champ in the history of UFC. On top of that, the event was held in New York after years and years of hard work to get the sport legalized in the state.
Hence, the magnitude of the fight card was unlike anything that the promotion had ever held before. Belal Muhammad fought in the prelims of the event against Vicente Luque. Although he lost the fight, he looks back at it as a learning curve instead of a failure.
Belal Muhammad: ‘UFC 205 was bigger than I expected it to be’
He recently had an interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN MMA where he spoke about the night in 2016. The Bully recalled how big it was for him to be able to feature on such a historic fight card. He said,
“You get there, it’s bigger than you thought it was. Cause, I think that was probably the biggest card in the UFC. The whole McGregor card, you’re seeing all these big names on the card. I didn’t have any card like that so far with all those big names yet.”
“So it’s a different experience, different level of intensity and then fighting in the garden, you know. You always hear about it. You see Muhammad Ali has fought there. All the greats fought there. So it’s just a different nervousness. And it was crazy, it was a cool experience. The lead-up, the walkout, everything like that. Obviously, the result wasn’t what I wanted. But in the end, it’s like, it teaches me to live in the moment more.”
A big time rematch in the welterweight top 5 ????????@VicenteLuqueMMA vs @BullyB170 goes down THIS WEEKEND!
[ #UFCVegas51 | Saturday | LIVE on @ESPN ] pic.twitter.com/Cr7rg5DJHf
— UFC (@ufc) April 11, 2022
The 33-year old then went on to explain he was able to erase the loss from his mind quickly because Muhammad perceived the opportunity to be on the card as a blessing. Belal will finally the get opportunity to avenge his loss to Vicente Luque as their paths will once again cross this weekend at UFC Vegas 51.