Belal Muhammad has faced growing criticism about the game plan and strategy he used in a loss to Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 that cost him the welterweight title.
In the days and weeks leading up to the event, Muhammad repeatedly stated he wanted to show off his “Canelo hands” and prove that his boxing could go up against anybody — including a known knockout artist like Della Maddalena. During his rise up the ranks, Muhammad displayed incredible wrestling and constant pressure that allowed him to largely maul his competition but despite going for nine takedowns during the fight, he’s being slammed for the way he approached the matchup against the Australian slugger.
UFC legend Matt Brown vehemently disagrees with the notion that Muhammad’s loss really comes down to poor game planning because that totally negates what Della Maddalena did to shut him down.
“It’s almost an irrelevant question because it didn’t matter what his game plan was,” Brown explained on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Jack had an answer for everything that he did.
“Yeah, if you’re on Belal’s camp, you’re probably looking back saying OK, we probably could have game planned differently but it’s hard to imagine that would have changed anything. When you go back to the drawing board for Belal, you’ve got a lot of drawing to do when you’re looking at a Jack Della Maddalena fight.”
Because the fight largely played out on the feet, Della Maddalena was able to win many of the biggest exchanges with his superior boxing, length and power. While Muhammad definitely had his moments, he struggled to really land his biggest shots and there was no doubt that Della Maddalena was doing more damage whenever he connected.
As far as the wrestling goes, Brown is quick to point out that Muhammad didn’t abandon his takedowns as much as Della Maddalena just had a constant answer to every attempt to drag him into deep waters on the ground.
“Jack’s wrestling looked great,” Brown said. “Even when Belal got him down, he stood right back up, I think every time. I’m not remembering any time Belal held him down for any decent length of time. He used some tricky little things, hip toss type things to create some space. He was really good at staying off the cage.
“Even if Belal wasn’t able to take him down, I think that was kind of our assumption [Della Maddalena] was going to be held against the cage for most of the fight and it was going to be really, really boring. I think that’s what everybody was calling. I don’t think it was just me calling that. It didn’t work out that way.”
Brown argues that if Muhammad deserves any criticism for the way he fought this past Saturday night, it’s more about the strikes he tried to use against Della Maddalena rather than not wrestling enough.
Muhammad seemed focused primarily on his boxing and Brown knew that was a potential recipe for disaster against somebody as slick and powerful with his hands as Della Maddalena.
“It seemed that Belal was boxing with him a little bit more than I would have liked,” Brown said. “If I was game planning for him, I would have liked to see him do more teeps or kicks and mix it up a little bit more, do more distance stuff. We already know Jack is a really good boxer. He’s very tight. Very technical. Looks great when he’s throwing hands.
“That’s the worst way to approach him. Whether you want to stand with him or you want to take him down. Even if you say you want to stand with him for a few rounds, let’s not just box with a boxer. The only thing I would have liked to see from Belal more was a Muay Thai/kickboxing style. Just boxing with a boxer, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense in my head.”
Ultimately, Brown can’t help but wonder if Della Maddalena is just a stylistic puzzle that Muhammad wasn’t able to solve no matter what he tried.
Brown has seen it happen throughout combat sports history that fighters often run into a brick wall when it comes to certain matchups that they just can’t overcome. It’s impossible to say with absolute certainty that’s what happened to Muhammad at UFC 315 but Brown believes all the evidence points in that direction.
“Belal has a lot learn from on this fight,” Brown said. “He’s got a lot that I think he can look at and improve on. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be enough to beat Jack the way that fight went the other night. I’m not sure there’s anything he can do matchup wise and sometimes that’s the thing is just the matchup. The fact is Jack had a perfect game plan. We can talk about Belal’s lack of game plan all day but Jack had a perfect game plan. He executed extremely well the entire fight.
“I don’t know if there was anything [Belal] could have done to beat Jack. I don’t know if there’s anything he could do to beat Jack in the future.”
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