Javier Mendez disagrees with Belal Muhammad’s approach in his UFC 315 title loss, but understands why he did it.
Muhammad (24-4 MMA, 15-4 UFC) opted to predominantly strike in his unanimous decision loss to Jack Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) in Saturday’s main event at Bell Centre in Montreal. As a result, he suffered a broken nose, orbital bone, and a split lip.
Mendez recalls former undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s eagerness to show off his striking and prove that he’s not just an elite grappler. While Nurmagomedov never paid for it when he stood and traded with Al Iaquinta in their vacant title fight at UFC 223, Muhammad did against Della Maddalena.
“None of us thought that Belal would be able to beat him just standing up, so he wanted to do what none of us thought that he could do, that’s what I’m thinking,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “I could be wrong, but that’s what it appeared like to me that he wanted to stand. He didn’t want to implement what got him the title. I used to be on Khabib all the time because Khabib, everybody always criticized him for not being good at striking.
“I’d always keep him on track, but he’d always go off track trying to prove to people that he could stand, and he could stand as the fights went on later. Later, he was able to stand really well – extremely well. But I still didn’t like that because I wanted him to go back to what made him the best, and that’s the mistake a lot of fighters make. They want to try to prove their point that they can do things that people think they can’t do.”
Mendez also gave credit to Della Maddalena for his ability to keep the fight on the feet.
“At the same time, too, maybe Jack didn’t allow him those opportunities,” Mendez said. “But Jack did a great job. He mixes up his punches and his kicks really well, keeps his distance really well, stayed in the middle the majority of the time. He’s all around just a really, really good fighter.”
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