Two fighters who have combined to win 40 times in their careers meet on Saturday at UFC 213, as Belal Muhammad takes on Jordan Mein. Muhammad is 11-2 in his career including 2-2 in the UFC, while Mein is 29-11 and 3-3 in the UFC. This fight is one of four on the FS1 portion of the preliminary card, leading up to a five-fight main card, which features Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko. Let’s look at Muhammad vs. Mein and UFC predictions.
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Belal Muhammad ( 11-2, 2-2 UFC )
Muhammad started his career 9-0 before he made his UFC debut last July in a loss to Alan Jouban by unanimous decision. Muhammad bounced back from that defeat to win against Augusto Montano in September of last year. He fought just two months later and was knocked out by Vicente Luque at UFC 205. Muhammad got right back into action three months later and beat Randy Brown by decision at UFC 208 in February.
This will be the sixth fight for Muhammad since last April. Muhammad doesn’t have a lot of power and overall he is not a great finisher, as 8 of his 13 fights have gone to a decision.
Muhammad said to My MMA News that this fight against Mein is really important to him. “It’s the one year anniversary of when I first got into the UFC, when I fought Alan Jouban,” Muhammad said. “I lost in Vegas at International Fight Week so it’s one of those where it’s always in the back of my mind and I want to get that one back in Vegas and come out on top.”
Muhammad is known as a great Muslim athlete and he takes that responsibility seriously. “You don’t realize how many people are following you in the Muslim community,” he said. “I’ll get messages from all around the world of people telling me that their kids are looking up to me and I’m a hero to their kids for what I’m doing. I didn’t even think about it like that. So now that I know that I have these type of people looking at me it just makes me work a lot harder and be more dedicated to the sport.”
Jordan Mein ( 29-11, 3-3 UFC )
Mein won his UFC debut in 2013, as he defeated Dan Miller. Mein wasn’t able to handle Matt Brown later that year and lost by TKO. He bounced back in 2014 to defeat Hernani Perpetuo and he followed up that victory with a knockout of Mike Pyle in August of 2014. Mein was beaten by Thiago Alves in January of 2015 and many people thought he was going to retire after that loss but he came back to fight Emil Weber Meek at UFC 206 in December of last year and lost a unanimous decision.
Mein has plenty of power, as 16 of his 29 wins are by knockout. Mein has fought just once since 2015.
UFC Picks
Mein really hasn’t looked that good in his last two fights, while Muhammad is coming off a good win against Randy Brown. I will lay the small price and take Muhammad to get the win.
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UFC 213 takes place on Saturday, July 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the feature bout a matchup between Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko. There are five fights on the main card, which is pay-per-view, four prelims that will be shown on FS1 and three on UFC Fight Pass.
Main Card ( Pay-per-view )
Valentina Shevchenko -120 vs. Amanda Nunes
Robert Whittaker -135 vs. Yoel Romero
Alistair Overeem -130 vs. Fabricio Werdum
Anthony Pettis -230 vs. Jim Miller
Curtis Blaydes -747 vs. Daniel Omielanczuk
Preliminary Card ( FS1 )
Travis Browne -205 vs. Oleksiy Oliynyk
Chad Laprise -529 vs. Brian Camozzi
Belal Muhammad -160 vs. Jordan Mein
Thiago Santos -146 vs. Gerald Meerschaert
Preliminary Card ( UFC Fight Pass )
Rob Font -295 vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade
Trevin Giles -325 vs. James Bochnovic
Cody Stamann -270 vs. Terrion Ware
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