Neil Magny has been a part of nearly every UFC era, and with the benefit of hindsight, the UFC Vegas 100 headliner would like to see an interim welterweight title fight while Belal Muhammad recovers from his injury.
Magny faces surging contender Carlos Prates in the main event of Saturday’s card at the APEX. After a bone infection scratched Muhammad from the UFC 310 main event against Shavkat Rakhmonov, the scheduled challenger called to stay on the Dec. 7 card and fight for interim gold. Magny likes the idea, and with the depth of the 170-pound division at the moment, he feels it’s the best move for welterweight.
“I think the interim title shot just kind of one of the things that keeps the division moving,” Magny told MMA Fighting. “It keeps everything flowing. With as much talent that we have in in the UFC, in this division, it’s almost unfair to keep it tied up for so long. I get that it’s very unfortunate that Belal got injured. It wasn’t anything that he did in particular to lead himself in that position. So for him, it sucks that he’s injured, but for the rest of the division to keep it going, I feel like the interim shot is necessary.”
Magny has faced Rakhmonov in the past, with Rakhmonov submitting Magny in the second round in June 2022. The 33-fight veteran has faced—or trained with—most of the top contenders in the division.
If the 37-year-old had the UFC welterweight matchmaking pencil, he would schedule an interim title fight while Ian Machado Garry and Joaquin Buckley take care of their business at UFC Tampa.
“At this point, if you don’t have the interim title shot in his absence,, it becomes a logjam at the top of the division where it’s like, ‘All right, well, who’s next in line for a title?” Magny said. “Then you have, arguably, anyone from one through five should or could be in a fight for that title right now. I mean, you have Usman, you have Leon Edwards, you have Sean Brady, you have Jack Della Maddalena, you have all these guys that are actually able to make a case to be a legit No. 1 contender fight for the title at this point.
“But at the end of it, doing the interim title, I think that’s the right call to make just kind of keep things moving along and allow the UFC to have a few more contenders.”
For Magny, he knows he’s far away from title contention—and that’s OK. In his eyes, it’s all about being the best fighter, mentor, parent, business owner, and overall person he can be.
Whether he was offered Prates—3-0 with three finishes since debuting earlier this year—or anybody else, it didn’t matter. Magny agreed to headline on this card, and on this date specifically, and did so before he had a dance partner on the books.
“It feels great to be here,” Magny explained. I was just talking to someone the other day about just the different eras of of UFC that I’ve been in — from the SPIKE TV days to Fox Sports days, to this deal with ESPN. Then you have the COVID era, and now we’re moving on to the next era of of UFC. I’m just very grateful to be a part of it all. I’m very fortunate to be a part of it all, but getting to the fight this weekend, it’s great.
“It’s a great opportunity. I get to headline in Las Vegas, UFC [Vegas 100], and it’s Veteran’s Day weekend, and being one of the, like, three actual U.S. war veterans on the UFC roster currently, being able to headline this card this weekend, it’s like, man, the stars are lining for me. Like it’s a great opportunity to out there and represent, to go out there and just do my thing. I’m very grateful for it.”
