Belal Muhammad explains why he called out Li Jingliang at UFC 258

For a while now, Belal Muhammad has been stuck at the level in his division that can be hardest to escape: Muhammad (18-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) established himself as a dangerous opponent for anyone at welterweight, but he didn’t have the name value of the biggest stars.

That made him the sort of fighter the biggest names wanted to avoid as a high-risk, low-reward foe, which made for lots of fruitless callouts in recent years.

“It was one of those things where I was calling and begging for these ranked guys for the last 2-3 years, where I’m calling these guys out and they never give it to me,” Muhammad recently told MMA Junkie. “And one day I’m like, ‘Dude, they’re not taking it.’ They’ve always got an excuse like, ‘I don’t want to fight below me. I don’t want to fight below me.’ And it was more so just tired of calling out these higher-ranked guys because I never get them.”

As the wins racked up, he got more specific in his big-name callouts, but they never panned out.

“I think I called out somebody – I’m always getting the callout and I’m never getting the guy,” he said. “I think even when I called out Tim Means in Australia, I called out Colby Covington, and that was at a place where Colby Covington isn’t where he is now, he was like No. 2 or 3. I’m one of those guys who are always calling out the top guys, but they never give me the fight.”

So Muhammad came up with an interesting new wrinkle at UFC 258. He put on an impressive show in defeating the always tough Dhiego Lima, using a striking game that was both high volume and pinpoint, which can be a tough thing to combine.

After getting the decision for his eighth victory in his past nine fights, Muhammad went for the opponent one spot ahead of him in the UFC’s official rankings: Li Jingliang.

The thinking behind this is, “The Leech,” who has been impressive in his own right, could make for a banger of a fight, and this could be the type of killer fight that finally forces his way into the biggest matchups once and for all.

“I’m like, ‘All right, this fight this makes sense – he’s right above me.’ If I can get booked for a fight in Singapore with him, why not? But it was nothing personal,” he said.

Even then, Muhammad said he’s since heard from people who told him he didn’t aim high enough in his callout. So sometimes, it seems like he just can’t win either way.

“Everybody was like, ‘Dude, you should aim higher,’” he said. “I’ve been like, ‘Dude, I’ve been aiming here and they all say you don’t deserve these guys.’ So I’ve got a name right above me, and they’re like, ‘Bro, you should have aimed higher than that.’ There’s no right answer, but as long as I get a ranked guy above me, I’ll be happy.”