Ilia Topuria and Belal Muhammad trade shots over social media: ‘Belal, he’s a fake champ’

Ilia Topuria and Belal Muhammad have beef.

Topuria is the UFC featherweight champion while Muhammad holds the welterweight title, and given there’s an entire weight class between the two champions, you might not expect the two to have problems with one another. You would be wrong.

Though Topuria is just weeks away from his first featherweight title defense, “El Matador” recently did an Instagram Live where he had some harsh words for Muhammad and his recently announced title defense against Shavkat Rakhmonov for UFC 310.

“Belal vs. Shavkat? Shavkat,” Topuria said. “Belal, he’s a fake champ. He’s a fake. I think right now in the welterweight division, the one who will come back and take the belt again is Kamaru Usman, in my opinion. Easy work for Usman.”

Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards for the welterweight title back at UFC 304, after Edwards took the belt from Usman and successfully defended against him in their rematch in 2023.

Of course, Muhammad wasn’t fond of Topuria’s trash talk and responded in kind on Twitter on Sunday, mocking Topuria in a similar fashion to how Max Holloway did earlier this week.

“Didn’t this dork just buy a fake ‘BMF’ belt to pose with... he’s starting to become the Georgian version of Colby Covington.”

Muhammad’s response then set off an exchange between the two via Twitter where the champions continued to rip into one another.

“Belal ‘Crotch Sniffer’ Muhammad”

“NO FINISHES
“NO KNOCKOUTS
“NO KNOCKDOWNS
“NO GIRLFRIEND
“NO KIDS
“BELAL HAS NEVER FINISHED ANY MAN OR WOMAN”

“Now you’re just copying stuff word for word off memes. [Laughing emoji]”

In other circumstances, the beef between these two could all be laying the groundwork for an eventual champ vs. champ fight, but given the weight disparity that seems unlikely. Instead it appears we’ve got some good, old-fashioned beef just for the sake of it.

But neither man has much time to dwell on this feud as they both have pressing business to attend to. Topuria defends his featherweight title against Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 in Abu Dhabi, while Muhammad puts his belt on the line against Rakhmonov at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 in Las Vegas.