UFC legend snubs Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley with bold top-3 take on Belal Muhammad

Chael Sonnen claims Belal Muhammad is the third-best welterweight in UFC history

Muhammad enters his second UFC title fight at 36 years old after dethroning Leon Edwards last summer at UFC 304.

The Chicago native is 14-1 (1 NC) since a KO loss to Vicente Luque with victories over Luque, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Demian Maia, Gilbert Burns and current #1 contender Sean Brady.

While he may not be as exciting of a champion like Robbie Lawler (18 decision wins under his belt), Muhammad’s ranked high among the likes of GSP and Usman as the greatest welterweights to ever do it.

At least, that how former UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen sees it.

“[Muhammad] is the third best welterweight champion from the UFC of all time,” Sonnen said on Good Guy / Bad Guy.

“That’s high praise.

“The only person you could ever argue head-to-head with St-Pierre and not lose credibility is Kamaru Usman. Kamaru was a great champion.

“So, now I’m putting Belal in that same category,” Sonnen said.

Chael Sonnen credits Belal Muhammad over defending champions

Georges St-Pierre and Kamaru Usman are the consensus top-2 welterweights of all time with 14 title defenses between them.

Other welterweight champions include Pat Miletich, Matt Hughes, Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley and Leon Edwards, who all had multiple title defenses but didn’t make the cut on Sonnen’s top-3 welterweight list.

The 24-3 Muhammad has yet to defend the title but the current champion did have a longer road to gold than most, having to win nine fights in a row for a title opportunity.

“Look, he gets credit for me,” Sonnen said of naming Muhammad as the third-best welterweight of all time.

“Going back to that Sean Brady fight where they undercarded him in Abu Dhabi trying to throw him off his track…

“He gets credit for me making that walk against Leon, taking the finger to the eye, getting up even if it was a [no contest], working your way back up that ladder…”