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UFC champion Belal Muhammad lambasts 'racist clown' Sean Strickland for UFC 312 defeat

UFC 170-pound champion Belal Muhammad is no fan of Sean Strickland, and he pulled no punches in his assessment of Strickland's performance at UFC 312.

By Simon Head

Jun 12, 2021; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Belal Muhammad (left) against Demian Maia during UFC 263 at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jun 12, 2021; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Belal Muhammad (left) against Demian Maia during UFC 263 at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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Sean Strickland has been slammed by UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, who took aim at the American's display inside the cage, and his character outside it, in a scathing assessment of his performance at UFC 312.

Muhammad watched from home as Strickland came up short in his rematch with middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis, who had taken the belt from him in their first bout at UFC 297 last year.

RELATED: UFC 312 results: Champions Dricus Du Plessis, Zhang Weili dominate in Sydney

But, with the title up for grabs again, Strickland had no answer for Du Plessis as he fell to a unanimous decision defeat in Sydney, with the South African earning scores of 50-45, 50-45, 49-46 for a dominant victory.

After watching the fight, Muhammad jumped in his car and posted a video message as he reacted to Strickland's performance.

“What did we learn?” Muhammad asked.

“We learned that Bully is always right. I’ve been saying it forever – Sean sucks. He’s trash. He talks a big game, but he never walks.

“Even to the fans that sit there and hype him up like he’s the best boxer, the best boxing defense, this and that. ‘He’s gonna go to war and he’s gonna kill.’ ‘I would bleed for my fans. I would die for my fans’. Blah blah.

“But you go out there and he just jabs and teeps and he fights like a scared little girl, and he doesn’t want to get hit.

“Even when you’re down four rounds, he doesn’t go all out. He doesn’t have it in him, unless there’s five seconds left in the fight, and he wants to yell and have that highlight reel, and wants people to say that he’s crazy, he’s nuts. He’s not.

“He’s just a racist little clown that’s hiding in the body of a fighter. He’s a scared little boy hiding in the body of a fighter. He’s a coward, and he shows it in his fights.”

Strickland appeared at the pre-fight press conference with a noticeable infection – identified by several fighters as a staph infection – on his shoulder. And Muhammad said that Strickland's choice to display that to the world was a conscious ploy to build in a ready-made excuse for his eventual defeat on fight night.

“Now he’s gonna come up with the ‘Oh man. But I had staph. Let me tell you, some of the guys, I get paid a lot of money, and I got staff so but I was gonna still fight for you guys, because I had to put a show on for my friend, my fans,'” Muhammad continued.

“‘And then I broke my nose, so it messed up my whole fight, even though I lost the first three rounds just by jabbing one time every five minutes. And yeah, man, it was off on the staff. That’s why I wore sleeveless shirts at the press conference, so people could see it and have an excuse built up already, and my fans will know that I still stepped in there for you.'

“He sucks. And finally, we get to get rid of giving this guy undeserved title shots.”

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