UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad broke down the upcoming UFC on ESPN 66 headliner.
Ian Machado Garry (15-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) takes on Carlos Prates (21-6 MMA, 4-0 UFC) in Saturday’s main event at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. Machado Garry suffered his first-career loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 this past December, while Prates is on a roll having scored bonus-winning knockouts against all four of his UFC opponents.
“Ian fights very smart. He understands how to win, and I think the experience in the Shavkat fight is going to help him in the Prates fight,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I think he’s going to use his distance, stay long, stick and move, stick and move, and I think he’s going to go out there and win this one.”
Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) makes his first title defense against Jack Della Maddalena (17-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in the UFC 315 headliner (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) May 10 at Bell Centre in Montreal. Della Maddalena got the call after Rakhmonov couldn’t compete due to injury.
Muhammad still hopes to rebook the Rakhmonov fight should he beat Della Maddalena but sees various other options outside of the Machado Garry vs. Prates winner.
“In my eyes, it’s still Shavkat unless he’s still going to be out a lot longer,” Muhammad said. “But (Sean) Brady just had a huge performance against Leon (Edwards), and you still got (Joaquin) Buckley there; he’s calling for (Kamaru) Usman. It’ll have to be a huge show or a huge performance.”
