With welterweight champion Belal Muhammad temporarily sidelined due to a foot infection, the UFC is considering an interim title fight between Shavkat Rakhmonov and Kamaru Usman for the December 10 card, despite criticism from some, including veteran Matt Brown, who argue that interim titles are often unnecessary and primarily used to boost pay-per-view sales.
Belal Muhammad, the welterweight champ, is out due to a foot infection, leaving the UFC scrambling for a new main event for the year’s final pay-per-view. Shavkat Rakhmonov wants an interim title fight, and he’s eyeing Kamaru Usman as the ideal opponent for December 10.
Sure, the fight makes sense based on who’s available and their track records. But Muhammad’s not thrilled about an interim title since he just snagged the belt in July and will only be sidelined for about six weeks. Veteran UFC fighter Matt Brown gets the need to fill the gap left by Muhammad at UFC 310 but questions if an interim title is necessary.
“We all know it’s not a real title,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Belal has the f*cking title. He’ll be back soon. He’s going to fight whoever wins. This is just a contender match. Great.
“It’s a great fight. I’m pumped to see Shavkat take on Usman. Almost as excited as I’d be for Shavkat and Belal, except then it’d be for the actual title.”
Recently, the UFC has been tossing around interim titles more often to hype up pay-per-views rather than because champs can’t defend their belts for long stretches.
Take 2023: Jon Jones tore a pec muscle, canceling his bout with Stipe Miocic. In his absence, the UFC booked Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich for an interim title instead. Aspinall won but won’t unify anything since Jones got rebooked against Miocic.
Or remember when Francis Ngannou had just won the heavyweight title? The UFC needed a headliner for August, but Ngannou couldn’t turn around fast enough, so they introduced an interim title fight between Ciryl Gane and Derrick Lewis.
Brown gets that internal research might show fans love buying PPVs with a title fight headliner, but often crowning an interim champ feels unnecessary.
“They usually do it to sell PPVs by slapping a title on it,” Brown said. “Usman alone could sell PPVs. We all know him; we all want to watch him fight. Does adding a title really change that dynamic? Maybe it makes it bigger, but why not just keep it five rounds without calling it a title fight?
“Sadly, it kinda cheapens what an interim title means. This is probably one of the worst cases we’ve seen yet.”
Will the UFC go ahead with an interim title? Brown admits that’s a risk when promotions hold this much power.
On one hand, UFC can book top-tier fights — unlike boxing’s struggles — but sometimes decisions prioritize dollars over logic.
“The blessing and curse of one company ruling everything,” Brown remarked about UFC’s dominance. “Dana [White] taking over boxing? It’s messy there too. But they can just do whatever they want; it’s their company.”
“There are no set rules or guidelines like ‘out for six months equals interim title.’ It would solve so much if there were clear rules.”
Like it or not, Brown says UFC needs those PPV sales; if Rakhmonov vs. Usman with an interim belt boosts sales, that’s likely what will happen.
“That’s both the blessing and curse of being a private business — they’re out to make money,” Brown noted. “The curse is they can do whatever they want, leading to these random interim titles.”