Belal Muhammad has been making it clear that he wants to fight Khamzat Chimaev. The UFC welterweight didn't get that fight but he still got a big opponent in Vicente Luque in his next bout.

Belal Muhammad recently revealed that he almost had the Khamzat Chimeav fight before it went to Gilbert Burns. The UFC wanted them to fight in the main event at their London fight night.

“It’s crazy because it was maybe three or four weeks after my fight, [my manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] called me and said, ‘They’re offering Khamzat in London as the main event,’ and I was like, ‘Let’s go, book it,’” Muhammad revealed to MMA Fighting. “He’s like, ‘You sure you’re down? He’s [ranked] No. 11,’ and I [said] I want that fight, let’s go. He said, ‘OK, but don’t say nothing yet.’

“Three or four days later, I’m sitting there messaging my family, they’re looking up tickets to London and getting ready to book, and [I said] don’t do nothing yet until we get a contract because you never know.”

The UFC needed to book Vicente Luque and Gilbert Burns as well and found themselves in a tricky spot. The two are good friends and would never fight each other. Khamzat Chimaev was still in the picture and he needed a fight.

“All of a sudden they call me back and said, ‘We have a couple issues,’” UFC welterweight Muhammad said. “‘Gilbert [Burns] and Vicente [Luque] are really good friends and they’ll never fight each other, so then we have an issue, so it’s going to be something between you three. It’s you, Gilbert, Luque and Khamzat,’ they want to match us with those three somehow.

“So he’s like, ‘Out of those three, which one do you want the most?’ I want Khamzat. That’s who I want the most. You get the most hype from beating a guy like that even though he’s not the highest ranked, and especially getting the chance to headline The O2 arena, I think that would have been huge.”