It’s not uncommon for a UFC fighter to cut off his hair to save a high-profile contest, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone chopping off their toe.

Regardless, Xtreme Couture trainer Neil Melanson.

Newly crowned welterweight champion Belal Muhammad briefly considered amputating one of his infected toes to preserve his UFC 310 title defense against unbeaten contender Shavkat Rakhmonov, but the infection had already spread to his foot.

Luckily, Remember the Name has been cleared to return to his Octagon.

“I’m cleared and ready to go,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “But now it’s like I’m going back to where I was. Literally, I liked 50 pushups and I felt like I was in a war and got hit by a truck. I’m like, “Brother, this is what it feels like to be out of shape?” It’s crazy. It got to the point where I thought, “Brother, what if you got rid of that toe?” What do I need to do to get back as quickly as possible? But the way the doctor said it was like a bone infection. So it wasn’t like people were like, ‘Oh, you have a broken toe.’ I think, brother, if it was a toe, then I had a broken toe for over a year.”

Broken toes are enough to knock out some UFC fighters, while others suck it up and move on.

“And then that toe got infected from that, so it went right into the bone and climbed up the foot,” Muhammad continued. “So he was like, ‘Brother, your foot is going to be amputated.’ That’s not it. For me it was obviously heartbreaking, but just trusting God, trusting that God has a plan for me, knowing that everything happens for a reason. And now that I look at the bigger picture, I hope there’s a reason for it.”

We may find out this reason in just over 24 hours.

Rakhmonov remained on the UFC 310 roster and will fight fellow undefeated welterweight phenom Ian Garry for the right to challenge Muhammad sometime in early 2025. Their five-round co-main event takes place this Saturday. night (December 7, 2024) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

For the rest of the UFC 310 fight card and PPV lineup, click here.