In December 2024, Belal Muhammad was gearing up for the biggest fight of his life. A title defense at UFC 310 against Shavkat Rakhmonov was a ticket to prove that the Palestinian-American was good enough to slay the undefeated 18-0 Kazakh phenom. But then, everything stopped. No weigh-ins, no press conferences, no war inside the Octagon. Instead, fans were left with a single haunting image of Muhammad’s toe, swollen and grotesque, and the champion confined to a hospital bed!

What happened? Why did a toe become the headline for one of the most anticipated welterweight clashes in recent memory? As UFC 315 approaches and Muhammad gets ready to defend his crown for the first time against Jack Della Maddalena, let’s pull back the curtain on why he was forced out of the fight against ‘Nomad’!

What happened to Belal Muhammad’s toe?

Belal Muhammad took to Instagram in October 2024, revealing the real reason behind his shocking withdrawal from UFC 310. Sharing gruesome images of his toe from a hospital bed, the champion wrote, “Caught a bone infection in my foot .. had to put a picc line in my arm for iv antibiotics the next 6 weeks with no physical activity … Allahs plan is the best plan I’m sorry to everyone that were coming to see me Ill be back soon inshAllah”

What seemed like a minor injury at first seemed to spiral into a medical crisis! According to Dr. Yared Vazquez, a specialist in such cases, Muhammad had been nursing a broken toe for nearly a year. Over time, bacteria crept into the bone. The medical term for the condition is ‘osteomyelitis’, a severe and in some cases, life-threatening bone infection.

The infection forced Muhammad into a hospital bed and onto a brutal six-week IV antibiotic regimen. Things got so grim that he reportedly considered amputating the toe, just to speed up his return.

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen revealed, “Now he was in the hospital for a toe, and the toe was infected. And the infection almost killed him, but it was a toe nonetheless. So when I bought the five push-up scenario to Daniel Cormier, Daniel tells me, ‘Yes, Chael, but because it was his toe that hurt and for good form on a push-up, you must be on your toes. He must not have been able to dig in and get to position.’ And that may explain the five push-ups.”

Imagine trying to do push-ups on a toe that had gotten so bad, you considered amputating it! But that only speaks to the warrior-like mentality of the Chicago native. Because he once won a fight with a broken ankle and didn’t even blink for 25 minutes!

Muhammad won a fight with an ankle injury

At UFC 288, Belal Muhammad squared off against Gilbert Burns in Newark, New Jersey. The result? A dominant, unanimous decision win for ‘Remember the Name’. And while Burns apparently suffered a shoulder injury early in the fight, Muhammad stepped in already nursing a swollen ankle.

Photos surfaced from the fight week and showed the welterweight star with a noticeably puffy joint. The kind that puts regular mortals out of action with the sheer pain and discomfort. Yet, in an interview with MMA Underground, Muhammad revealed, “It was a sprained ankle. And there was a swelling around it. And we’re using it a lot because we knew we were going to be doing a lot of kicking in this fight. So, it was just like, we’ve just got to get through this fight, 25 minutes, doesn’t matter what type of pain we’re going through.”

He credited adrenaline for pushing him through the pain as he further shared, “Nothing happened, everything worked out in our favor. It looked smooth in there. It felt smooth in there.” The most mind-boggling part of this entire ordeal? Muhammad used a kick-heavy approach throughout the fight, despite knowing the damage he was already carrying in his ankle.

To wrap things up, after surviving a life-threatening bone infection and battling through injuries like a modern-day gladiator, Belal Muhammad’s return at UFC 315 is nothing short of miraculous. The question now becomes, can this same grit carry him to victory over the surging Jack Della Maddalena? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!