Belal Muhammad received quite the notable shout-out from a former teammate on Monday night.
CM Punk congratulated the new UFC welterweight champion for his recent UFC 304 victory over Leon Edwards when the professional wrestling superstar addressed the crowd at Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena during WWE Raw.
“I just want to take a real quick minute to shout-out, give some flowers to my good friend, my teammate, my brother, Belal Muhammad,” he said. “He won the UFC welterweight title. It’s been a busy week, I didn’t forget. Congratulations. I love seeing good things happen to good people. I love watching hard work pay off.”
Muhammad posted, “Love you my brother,” in response.
Both are from Chicago and both used to train at Roufusport MMA Academy with Duke Roufus in Milwaukee, the same gym that produced former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and his brother Sergio, a former Bellator champion.
The WWE superstar, whose given name is Phil Brooks, is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu blue belt who favoured a grappling style when he competed twice in the UFC during his brief venture into mixed martial arts.
He lost his debut to Mickey Gall at UFC 203 in 2016 and lost to Mike Jackson in 2018 in his second and final fight — a result that was later officially changed to a no-contest after Jackson failed a drug test for marijuana.
CM Punk, 45, joined the likes of Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn as athletes to both compete in the UFC and perform in the WWE. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler later joined that group, too.
