Belal Muhammad is baffled to see Colby Covington as the backup fighter for the UFC 286 main event.
Both welterweight champion Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman successfully weighed in for their title-fight trilogy at The O2. But weighing in as a reserve was Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC), who also hit 170 pounds on the nose.
Muhammad (22-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) was campaigning to fight Covington, and says the former interim champion could have just faced him on this card if he’s ready to compete.
“It’s laughable for Dana White to keep saying this guy is No. 2 in the world, one of the best fighters in the world, and he’s afraid to fight anybody that can beat him,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “He only beats guys coming off of losses, and he had an opportunity to fight me on this card. I was trying to fight on this card, I wasn’t trying to do no crazy negotiations or anything with the UFC. Our end was yes, yes, yes. It was back in January when we were trying to get it going and he turned it down, just to weigh in as a backup.
“Weigh in for nothing, and not have to fight because dude’s afraid. So it’s a joke, they need to start taking him out of the rankings, he doesn’t want to fight, he’s not trying to fight. I’m glad that the world is starting to notice it and see it now, because we both could have weighed in, he still could have been backup, and we both could have actually fought and got a paycheck for actually fighting, but he’s a coward.”
Covington hasn’t competed since a lopsided unanimous decision win over Jorge Masvidal last March at UFC 272. White previously said Covington has been game to fight anyone, but the streaking Muhammad finds that hard to believe.
Unbeaten in his past nine fights, Muhammad is riding plenty of momentum after avenging his loss to Vicente Luque, then bouncing Sean Brady out of the ranks of the unbeaten with a second-round TKO at UFC 280.
UFC 286 takes place Saturday at The O2 in London. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 286.
