One of the longest unbeaten streaks in the UFC came to an end last weekend.
In the headline attraction of the organisation’s first fight card in Montreal in a decade, the now former champion Belal Muhammad was defeated by Australian challenger Jack Della Maddalena in the UFC 315 main event – with the 28-year-old following Robert Whittaker and Alexander Volkanovski as titleholders from Down Under.
Della Maddalena was awarded a unanimous decision win after five rounds of action (48-47 x2, 49-46) after fending off the majority of Muhammad’s takedown attempts and largely dominating the majority of the standup exchanges.
The loss was Muhammad’s first since a decision defeat to Geoff Neal in January 2019 and just his second in almost nine years.
And after what was an arduous road to his title win last summer against Leon Edwards in Manchester, Muhammad has pledged to return to the summit of the UFC welterweight division before long.
“Allah’s plan is the best plan,” Muhmmad wrote in a message posted to social media.“Alhamdillah for everything. Thank you to all my supporters. I [have] been here before and I’ll be back.”
It remains to be seen when Muhammad will be cleared to return to active competition following his defeat to Della Maddalena, after he was wearing visible damage to his face in the aftermath of the 25-minute contest – including a nasty split to his lip.
Furthermore, his path back to gold could be complicated by reports that lightweight champion and Muhammad training partner Islam Makhachev will likely be the first challenger to Della Maddalena sometime later this year.
