During Belal Muhammad’s current winning streak which now sees him at the top of the welterweight division, a lot has been made about the company he has chosen to keep.
“Remember The Name” has got a solid and small team around him but he has also decided in recent times to do some work alongside the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.
This was especially true heading into Muhammad’s fight with Sean Brady, which produced his best performance inside the Octagon at that time.
It was also a part of the narrative heading into his title fight with Leon Edwards last month.
Whilst the champion at the time had dealt with American wrestlers in Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, how would he match-up with someone that has been training with some of the best grapplers in the sport?
Javier Mendez Says Belal Muhammad’s Coaches Deserve More Credit For UFC 304 Win
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, AKA head coach Javier Mendez said that people got too carried away with giving ‘coach Khabib’ credit for Muhammad’s recent title win.
Whilst the welterweight challenger did manage to get some work in with “The Eagle” before heading to Manchester, Mendez revealed that it was only for a very small amount of time in the grand scheme of the training camp.
He said that while Nurmagomedov did contribute and would have added some extra value, the credit for this win on the coaching side of things deserves to be aimed at Muhammad’s long-time team instead.
“What about his coaches? What about Lou? What about his other coaches? Mike Valley, you know, what about them? I mean they were with him through this whole time so to me, it isn’t anything other than what they did as coaching staff because Khabib only put like maybe a week – two weeks to help him on this one and the rest he spent with his coaches. So, to me, I don’t like the narrative when they make it look like Khabib made the big difference when yeah he helped him but his coaches made the difference.”
