Following a four-fight win streak that had him on the cusp of finally breaking into the top 15 rankings at 170 pounds, Belal Muhammad suffered a major setback with a loss to Geoff Neal in January.
It was a particularly disappointing outcome because Muhammad was ultra-confident heading into the matchup but, in the end, he came away on the wrong end of a unanimous decision defeat.
In the aftermath of that fight, Muhammad almost had to undergo the five stages of grief to get past the loss. At first he was in denial, then he turned to anger before the string of emotions finally settled on acceptance when he realized where he went wrong.