Berard Mohammed, who is unbeaten in eight games, is now clearly qualified to play against any player he wants. Despite winning last weekend's match against Vincent Luquet and expected to move further up to the top 5, he knows he can't directly challenge the title in his next match, as Lyon Edwards has already secured a personal promise from Badana.
I don't think Edwards deserves to go up and challenge for the title, I really think so, but he's already given the privilege given by Bai Dana. Anyway, I don't expect anything the UFC can give me, I have to fight for everything, as I've always done, and I'm willing to keep it up.
Mohammed led a UFC fight night headline fight with Edwards last March, but the match ended fruitlessly because Edwards poked his finger in Mohammed's eye, preventing him from continuing.
While Edwards has remained unbeaten in the past 6 years, winning nine of his 10 games, Mohammed believes he has beaten opponents with less gold than he did, as does another high-ranking player in the sub-middleweight, Colby Covington.
Who has a winning streak at 170 pounds that has more gold content than me? I beat Demian Maya, Steven Thompson, Vincent Luquet, and who did Covington beat? He beat a guy who had lost two in a row. What about Edwards? He beat a 155-pound guy.
No one in this magnitude has been playing against the top challengers, I'm the only one who keeps playing against high-ranking players and winning all the time, and I can say I've passed the toughest test of this magnitude. Maybe Edwards has more wins in a row than I do, but the quality of his opponents he beats is clearly not as good as mine.
After defeating Luquet, Mohammed called Covington on the spot. But according to Bethana, Covington's next opponent will be Hamza Chimayev, although no time or place for the match has yet to be finalized.
But Mohammed believes Covington is the only opponent who suits him next, because he knows that Edwards' challenge to champion Kamanu Usman has become a foregone conclusion.
I think a lot of the players who rank higher than me haven't played yet, and even Edwards' match time hasn't been determined yet. I don't think Usman has recovered from surgery and is ready to return, and Edwards will probably not be able to play until September or October, which simply doesn't make sense.
I thought it would be the most reasonable arrangement to have me and Edwards fight until then, but I wouldn't call him out because I didn't want to offend anybody. As I said, of the players who ranked ahead of me and were in a state of victory, Covington and Chimayev were the best two guys, and they just don't have a schedule right now.
Regardless of who the UFC places as the opponent next, Mohammed wants to keep the game busy. He also hopes to play the same night in the Usman vs Edwards sub-middleweight titles, as he believes this may be his best chance to challenge for the UFC title.
If this championship battle is played in July, I hope to play in the same tournament as them. Almost every game at Edwards has the potential to be cancelled for some reason, and I think this time is no exception, and I hope to have the opportunity to be a substitute against Usman that night.