Jack Della Maddalena’s coach has called out Belal Muhammad for what he perceives as poor sportsmanship following Muhammad’s recent loss at UFC 315.
Speaking in a recent interview, the coach expressed frustration with Muhammad’s post-fight behavior and commentary, suggesting the defeated welterweight has failed to give proper credit to Della Maddalena for his victory.
“I was looking ahead, like every interview I listened to you never really spoke much about Jack and it was always about the ramifications of his win and where he was going to go next,” the coach stated. “I felt like he massively overlooked Jack.”
The criticism centers not only on Muhammad’s pre-fight attitude but extends to his behavior after the defeat. According to JDM’s coach, Muhammad has refused to acknowledge Della Maddalena’s performance in subsequent interviews.
“Now when he analyzes what’s going on, he has given Jack no credit, just said he did the wrong thing,” the coach continued. “He did one interview with his bestie and Belal never mentioned Jack’s name once in the whole interview.”
Particularly troubling to Della Maddalena’s team was Muhammad’s failure to engage in the traditional post-bout handshake, though the coach initially attributed this to Muhammad potentially being concussed after the intense matchup.
“He never shook his hand after the fight and I sort of wrote that off to concussion and being in a bad state after the fight,” he explained. “You should shake someone’s hand after a war like that. You should share a bit of mutual respect.”
The coach suggests this attitude could be detrimental to Muhammad’s growth as a fighter, noting: “To not even give Jack any flowers post-fight, I feel like it’s a really bad mentality to have because he’s not going to take away any of the mistakes he made.”
Most concerning to JDM’s team is Muhammad’s apparent belief that the outcome would be different in a rematch. “He just thinks on the next day, he will beat Jack the way he was supposed to this time. And I think it’s a terrible learning mentality,” the coach concluded.
This criticism comes as Muhammad returns to training, with videos emerging of him working on his boxing skills at War Room Academy. Despite the loss, Muhammad appears determined to rebuild, though fans remain divided on his future title prospects in the welterweight division.
