Joaquin Buckley warns UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad against a middleweight move.
Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) called UFC 185-pound champ Dricus Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) his easiest path to double-champ status. He even detailed how he’d beat Du Plessis by wearing him out and repeatedly taking him down.
Buckley (21-6 MMA, 11-4 UFC), who’s on a six-fight winning streak, sees Du Plessis as a bad matchup for Muhammad. He explained that the power is different at 185 pounds, which was a big reason why he opted to drop back down to welterweight.
“Belal Muhammad talking about he wants to move up, he could be double champ,” Buckley said on his YouTube channel. “Belal, I’m just going to warn you right now: You don’t have the tools nor the weapons to beat a person like Dricus. You’re not going to be able to take buddy down. I’m just being honest with you, bro. You’re not going to be able to take buddy down, nor will you be able to knock him out with them pillow hands.
“No matter how much you think that, OK, I can see holes in his game – even if you’re beating up Dricus, like I said before, he’s just going to keep coming, and coming, and coming, and he ain’t going to stop. He’s going to always have that constant pursuit after you, and if you don’t have things that’s going to hinder him or stop him in his tracks, he’s going to beat you.”
Du Plessis is fresh off his second title defense, defeating Sean Strickland for a second time at UFC 312 earlier this month. Meanwhile, Muhammad is gearing up for his first title defense, which is expected to take place against undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov sometime this year.
Muhammad discussed the possibility of moving up to middleweight after lightweight champion Islam Makhachev expressed his desire to capture a second UFC belt. Muhammad and Makhachev would rather not fight each other after training together on multiple occasions, and Muhammad said he’s willing to vacate his belt after a couple of title defenses.
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Joaquin Buckley: Belal Muhammad doesn’t have tools or weapons to beat Dricus Du Plessis
