UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad endured a bizarre interview with a local news station in which the hosts seemed to have no idea who he was.
Muhammad recently claimed champion status at UFC with a dominant win over Leon Edwards. 304Taking a literal victory march, Muhammad stopped by WGN News in his hometown of Chicago for an interview, but the atmosphere quickly became awkward.
The testy interview began with host Tonya Francisco introducing Muhammad from the teleprompter and co-host Amy Rutledge posing questions about Muhammad being the first UFC champion from Chicago.
After Muhammad described where he grew up and the school he went to, Francisco replied, “That's really amazing.”
Francis then quickly revealed his shocking ignorance on the subject.
“So that's why you got involved with UFC? Not UFC fights, but mostly street fights?” the anchor said. asked curiously..
“This is mixed martial arts,” Muhammad explained.
“And that's how you got involved? Did your coach ask you?” Francisco asked, unaware that the coach was actually an MMA coach.
Muhammad was careful to explain that his training has always been mixed martial arts focused, combining a variety of related disciplines.
“She didn't know who I was. [any] the study.'
But Francisco's outlandish questions didn't end there.
“So how do you train differently to be an MMA fighter than you do for boxing or wrestling?”
This line of questioning forced Muhammad to basically reiterate the fact that he trains in every aspect of MMA.
Rutledge persistently asked whether Muhammad was “involved” in any of the city's amateur “youth boxing clubs.”
“No, I've never boxed,” Muhammad repeated.
For many UFC fans, this interview will be reminiscent of the early 2000s, when MMA was largely unfamiliar to the general public and even the sports world, and fighters spent most of their interviews explaining what MMA was and why it should be allowed to exist.
Muhammad was featured on Joe Rogan's “MMA Show 162“After he and the host discussed an old UFC fight that included a headbutt. Headbutting was banned by the UFC in 1997.”
“It's funny how you say 'The Days of Headbutting,'” Muhammad said. “I was interviewed by the Chicago News yesterday and the woman… didn't know who I was. She was like, 'You're the street fighting champion, right?' She didn't look anything up,” the champion recalled.
“Imagine,” Logan replied in amazement, “you're a world champion and this person hasn't even spent five minutes researching the sport you play.”
“That was amazing. People still think that,” Muhammad responded, and Logan began joking.
“I wish he'd made up more lies,” the comedian said, suggesting that Mohammed should have claimed fighters met in alleyways and fought with bundles of nickels in their hands.
Logan also pointed out that some of the people on news shows aren't even human: “They're like robots. They just want to be on TV. They have no opinions. They have no personalities.”
Muhammad later revealed that the Chicago station did in fact have a sports anchor who wasn't up to interviewing him. Instead, the champion said, he felt like the anchor could only read from a teleprompter.
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