Henry Cejudo didn’t spill all of the tea when it comes to the infamous and unreleased podcast with former UFC champs Kamaru Usman and Belal Muhammad, but he provided additional details.
Cejudo and Usman co-host the Pound 4 Pound podcast, and they invited Muhammad on the show — which Cejudo says was set up by manager Ali Abdelaziz, who represents all three fighters. Both Usman and Muhammad have said in the past that something happened during the filming of the podcast, and things got heated, which Cejudo confirms is the case, while also saying he feels Usman started it.
“There was already drama coming in, so once they came in, and I was kind of like the mediator there, ‘Hey, what’s up Belal? What do you think of Kamaru? Hey Kamaru, what do you think of Belal?’ And shit just started kind of escalating,” Cejudo said on JAXXON Podcast. “I’ll be honest with you, Kamaru probably started it, but I could see why.”
After Muhammad won the welterweight title at UFC 304, Usman called his shot for a chance to regain his belt, while Muhammad would clap back on social media. The back-and-forth continued for quite some time, and then eventually, Muhammad went on the podcast.
Cejudo says not only did things get heated, they got physical as well.
“All of a sudden, I think Kamaru said it’s on sight, and Belal said, ‘Well, it’s on sight, what’s up?,’” Cejudo explained. “And then Kamaru gets up and then… you guys got to wait until we release the tape.
“So legit, there was a scuffle there, dude. I was in the middle I had a f*cking sprained ankle, I was trying to [get in the middle], the whole production crew started coming in. Like they had to detain both of them. There was about a good eight people there and four [were] trying to get on Belal, but hands were thrown. Slaps were given.”
Muhammad recently lost the title to Jack Della Maddalena, while Usman has his first fight booked in nearly two years as he faces Joaquin Buckley in the main event of UFC Atlanta on June 14.
As far as why they agreed to have Muhammad on with so much animosity between him and Usman, Cejudo thought it would be something different, perhaps a chance to bury the hatchet.
“At least on my part, I was like, ‘No, I think that’s f*cking cool,’” Cejudo said. “I was actually kind of happy that Kamaru was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, bring him on.’ Because you wouldn’t want to do a podcast with somebody that has your belt, especially [feeling] that way, especially when there’s shit that’s been thrown [on social media].”
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