Daniel Cormier wasn’t a fan of the in-cage faceoff between Belal Muhammad and Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.
Rakhmonov (16-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) faced off with welterweight champion Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) after he defeated Ian Machado Garry in Saturday’s UFC 310 co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Security initially wouldn’t let Muhammad into the cage, and Joe Rogan didn’t help matters when he joked on the microphone that security didn’t know he’s the champion. Cormier doesn’t think the faceoff helped promote the fight any more and saw the language barrier between Rakhmonov and Muhammad as an issue.
“I’ve got to be honest. It was weird,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I don’t love faceoffs when you have a translator, especially when Belal, as much as people want to hate him, he’s not a disrespectful guy. So it doesn’t make that moment that you’re looking for when you bring a champion into the ring. When Volk came in after Topuria beat Max, they shook hands and they left. It was very respectful.
“But you understood what they were saying. When (Sean) O’Malley was in there, and he was about to fight Aljo (Sterling) for the belt, Merab (Dvalishvili) takes the jacket, that makes a memory. This tonight, I don’t think it served the purpose that you want, as a promotion, in regards to what you’re going to do to try to build that fight.”
Muhammad was initially scheduled to defend his title against Rakhmonov in Saturday’s main event, but a bone infection in his toe forced him to withdraw. He was cleared to return to training last week.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 310.
