Stephen Thompson and Belal Muhammad will fight at a UFC Fight Night event on Dec. 18.
The welterweight pairing was first reported by MMA Junkie. Stephen Thompson will return to action after running into Gilbert Burns and losing a decision in July. For Belal Muhammad, this marks his fourth bout of the calendar year. Prior to the reported match-up, Muhammad rebounded with a decision victory against Demian Maia after a No Contest result was rendered against the #3-ranked Leon Edwards in March.
UFC has added a welterweight matchup between Stephen Thompson and Belal Muhammad to the promotion's final event of the year on Dec. 18 in Las Vegas.
Thompson confirmed the news to @bokamotoESPN and Muhammad confirmed via social media. MMA Junkie first reported the pairing. pic.twitter.com/jvvI1ZUez5
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) November 11, 2021
“UFC has added a welterweight matchup between Stephen Thompson and Belal Muhammad to the promotion’s final event of the year on Dec. 18 in Las Vegas. Thompson confirmed the news to @bokamotoESPN and Muhammad confirmed via social media. MMA Junkie first reported the pairing.” ESPN posted.
Stephen Thompson vs. Belal Muhammad Slated For Dec.
The 170-pound contest will serve on the final Fight Night card of 2021. Prior to facing Burns, the karate-based Thompson fired off back-to-back victories in the octagon. First, in 2019, Stephen Thompson earned a dominant decision victory against Vicente Luque, who recently was the backup fighter for the 170-pound title fight last weekend. While “Wonderboy” was unable to finish Luque with strikes, he inflicted major damage to the contender’s nose by the fight’s conclusion.
Following a dominant victory against “The Silent Assassin”, Thompson proved once again how difficult his style is to contend with. In Dec. of 2020, Thompson was tasked with facing fellow striker Geoff Neal. After a nasty accidental headbutt caused a cut to open on the face of “Wonderboy”, the fight appeared to be in jeopardy of being stopped. However, the kickboxing and movement of Thompson would prove to be too much for Neal.
While Thompson did not score the finish against Neal, he put the division on notice with some impressive kickboxing skills. Thompson put up a valiant effort against “Durinho” at the mega event UFC 264: Poirier vs. McGregor 3 but he struggled to mount offense due to the heavy wrestling pressure Burns implemented throughout the contest.
As of this writing, the current headliner for the Dec. 18 Fight Night event will be Derrick Lewis taking on Chris Daukaus. The updated lineup for the UFC event on Dec. 18 is as follows:
- Derrick Lewis vs. Chris Daukaus
- Stephen Thompson vs. Belal Muhammad
- Diego Ferreira vs. Mateusz Gamrot
- Amanda Lemos vs. Angela Hill
- Raphael Assunção vs. Ricky Simón
- Raquel Pennington vs. Julia Avila
- Cub Swanson vs. Darren Elkins
- Raoni Barcelos vs. TBD
- Andre Ewell vs. Charles Jourdain
- Anthony Hernandez vs. Dustin Stoltzfus
- Don’Tale Mayes vs. Josh Parisian
- Gerald Meerschaert vs. Abusupiyan Magomedov
- Jordan Leavitt vs. Matt Sayles
- Justin Tafa vs. Harry Hunsucker
- Sijara Eubanks vs. Melissa Gatto
