Chael Sonnen thinks that a leak from Belal Muhammad’s training camp could have been an accident.
UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad is riding one of the longest winning streaks in the division. He has won 5 in a row and has not lost in his last 10. He is fresh off his most recent win over Gilbert Burns at UFC 288 last weekend, however, that fight was almost derailed due to an injury that happened two weeks before the fight. No word of the injury was released before the fight however Muhammad now suspects that there was a “rat” in his camp.
Chael Sonnen wants Belal Muhammad to go easy on the person who spread the news of his injury
Sonnen has been around the sport of MMA for a long time. He was a longtime fighter and is now a commentator and analyst. He took to his YouTube channel to explain how he was once in the same boat as the person who revealed Muhammad’s injury. This is why he believes the person should be treated with some leniency and forgiveness.
“I was that rat one time, I was the rat, I didn’t know,” he said. “The guy, you know, you like to talk about fighting, your friends talk about fights, ‘hey what’s going on here, who’d you see over here, what’s going in the room? You know this fight’s in Jeopardy, I’m a little worried as a matter of fact he went in there he twisted his ankle today. It never once crossed my mind that the athlete wouldn’t want that out. It truly never even crossed my mind. The coach got a hold of me and he said do not put our team’s injury reports on the internet.”
It is unknown who leaked the news of the injury in Muhammad’s training camp. Many times in these big fight camps there are many people around, other fighters, trainers, and people that are just using the gym. Sonnen believes that perhaps the leak was unintentional and could have been just something that came up in conversation.
“What if the rat has an 18-year-old kid that looks up to him? What if the rat is 23 years old with a couple of amateur fights and would love to have his autograph or at some point he did have his autograph before he joined the gym. It’s not always what you might think,” Sonnen said. “Accidents happen. I would like to give the rat, I would like to give this guy the benefit of the doubt.”
Despite the leak of the news Muhammad still went on to win his fight and is now one of the front runners for the UFC title fight. Champion Leon Edwards is scheduled to face Colby Covington next possibly before the end of this year, but now Muhammad is waiting in the wings. Edwards and Muhammad have some history together, the last time they fought their bout ended in a no-contest after an accident eye poke. Both men seem interested in running it back again.
