Brady saw some holes in Belal
Muhammad’s game.
Muhammad took on Gabriel
Bonfim in a welterweight matchup in the main event at
UFC Fight Night 278 on Saturday. Bonfim delivered a master
class on the feet, never letting Muhammad get his wrestling game
going. While “Remember the Name” put on a display of heart and
chin, Bonfim beat him down for five rounds to earn the win by
dominant unanimous decision.
Muhammad’s former opponent Brady believes the former champ failed
to use a few weapons at his disposal. Namely, when Bonfim kicked,
Brady expected Muhammad to either catch the limb or counter it more
effectively. Brady noted that Muhammad fought on his back foot for
most of the fight, which significantly hampered his wrestling.
However, Brady also gave the victor Bonfim credit for placing
himself in the best place to win the fight. Brady said on the UFC
post-fight show:
“I think [Muhammad] could have worked on catching the kicks a lot
more. Gabriel was throwing them low; he was throwing them to the
body. So, I think that’s something that Belal could have scored
some takedowns off of. If you watch my fight with Buckley, whenever
someone kicks at me, I’m looking to catch a leg. And it’s usually
one of the easiest ways to score takedowns… I think Belal also
didn’t do himself any favors by getting backed up the whole time.
It’s hard to shoot off your back foot, especially if you’re trying
to be explosive with a double leg. If he had started to go forward,
trying to catch those kicks, it would have did him wonders. But
Gabriel did a good job of just not letting it happen.”
Brady suffered his first professional loss against Muhammad via
knockout in 2022. Brady then rebounded with a three-fight winning
streak before falling short against Michael
Morales at UFC 322 last year. Brady has since returned to the
win column with a dominant decision over Joaquin
Buckley in May. Brady revealed that he has already been
studying Bonfim as he thought they could be on a collision course.
Brady will be open to fighting “Marretinha” if he can break into
the top five at welterweight after his win over Muhammad.