Midnight Mania! Belal Muhammad claims ‘coward’ Colby Covington ducked him at UFC 286

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

From random fight fans to the actual men fighting in the UFC 286 main event, everyone was surprised when Colby Covington weighed in on Friday morning (March 17, 2023). Neither Kamaru Usman nor Leon Edwards knew that “Chaos” was the back up plan in the event that either man missed weight or were suddenly injured, largely because Covington has been utterly radio silent since allegedly receiving some street justice at the hands of Jorge Masvidal.

Not everyone reacted to the news positively, however. Belal Muhammad has been angling to fight Covington for quite a while, and per the streaking Welterweight contender, he agreed to fight Covington at tomorrow’s event! Instead, Covington opted for the backup role for the main event rather than fighting “Remember The Name.”

“It’s laughable for Dana White to keep saying this guy is No. 2 in the world, one of the best fighters in the world, and he’s afraid to fight anybody that can beat him,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “He only beats guys coming off of losses, and he had an opportunity to fight me on this card. I was trying to fight on this card, I wasn’t trying to do no crazy negotiations or anything with the UFC. Our end was yes, yes, yes. It was back in January when we were trying to get it going and he turned it down, just to weigh in as a backup.

“Weigh in for nothing, and not have to fight because dude’s afraid. So it’s a joke, they need to start taking him out of the rankings, he doesn’t want to fight, he’s not trying to fight. I’m glad that the world is starting to notice it and see it now, because we both could have weighed in, he still could have been backup, and we both could have actually fought and got a paycheck for actually fighting, but he’s a coward.”

It’s been just about a year since Covington’s last fight opposite the aforementioned Masvidal, whom Covington defeated via unanimous decision. Since then, Covington has been sidelined seemingly by his lawsuit against “Gamebred,” which keeps getting postponed in court.

Meanwhile, Muhammad has is unbeaten in his last nine fights. He’s won eight of them, and the sole exception was a “No Contest” opposite the current champion in “Rocky.” His next match up is uncertain, but Muhammad is certainly deserving of a title eliminator or backup role himself.

LIVE! Watch UFC 286 PPV On ESPN+ Here!

CHAMPIONSHIP TRILOGY! Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) returns to The O2 in London England, on Sat., March 18, 2023, with newly-minted Welterweight kingpin, Leon Edwards, running it back with former 170-pound champion, Kamaru Usman, for a third (and likely final) time. In UFC 286’s pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, all-action Lightweight knockout artists, Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev, will lock horns with the winner inching closer to a future Lightweight title shot.

Don’t miss a single second of EPIC face-punching action!

Insomnia

Rafael Fiziev flowing on mitts!

I feel like the City Kickboxing vs. Islam Makhachev IV controversy has already been forgotten, but here’s a sort-of update:

This column stands with insane wrestling parents.

I’ve seen both of these men fight numerous times and am still unsure of just how good they actually are. At least it should be fun!

Kevin Lee sparring with Gilbert Burns often should give him real insight into how he stacks up with the Welterweight elite.

Juan Espino can wrestle well and has pretty solid conditioning. If he fights more often, I feel like his chances of breaking into the Heavyweight Top 15 are really solid even at 42 years of age.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

David vs. Goliath except David is still pretty dang beefy.

A counter hook absolutely nails the off button:

Elbow vs. elbow! Same as with any other strike, the more direct line of attack got there first!

Random Land

There are a ton more updates on his Twitter, but this starting thread of an AI-ran business is real interesting.

Midnight Music: Indie, 2017

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.