Belal Muhammad has said some crazy stuff over the years, but “Remember The Name” has topped himself this time by dropping one of the strangest pre-fight quotes ever involving prolific pedophile and billionaire power broker Jeffrey Epstein.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you can’t get away from Epstein chatter these days. The U.S. government has been at war with itself over the past months as some politicians push to release the infamous ‘Epstein files’ collected by the Justice Department over years of investigation. Epstein was a well-connected pervert and there’s plenty of threads tying him to Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and a lot of other powerful people.
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The whole story is gross and tragic for Epstein’s many victims, with over 135 women having come forward and one knowledgeable estimate suggesting he abused over 1000 underage girls. That didn’t stop Muhammad from making a joke about it during UFC Qatar media day leading into his co-main fight against Ian Machado Garry.
“My future is bright,” Muhammad said when asked how he’d handle all the young contenders at welterweight. “I’m training with young monsters. Ignacio Bahamondes is probably 28, and I think he’s one of the best strikers in the UFC. I got a 17 year old now, Ignacio’s younger brother, who’s a monster. It it feels like the Epstein files without the sex. Right? I’m getting their powers through through sparring and training.”
Okay then.
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Belal is often trying to tie his fight talk into popular cultural discussion. After Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford was announced, Muhammad started talking about how he had “Canelo hands.” Those comments fell flat amongst fight fans, but they generated headlines. And hey, he’s gotten this headline with the Epstein comment, so we guess he wins if he believes there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
Muhammad is fortunate that he and UFC Qatar opponent Ian Machado Garry seem to be on relatively good terms leading up to their fight. When Neal Magny joked that he’d beat Garry like he beats his son, Garry went on a scorched earth media campaign accusing him of being a child abuser. The comments gained so much traction they were even brought up during Neal’s custody hearings.
We’ll see if Garry decides to take advantage of this Muhammad self-own as their welterweight contender’s match approaches on November 22nd.