Report - Stephen Thompson vs. Belal Muhammad Booked For UFC Vegas 45 on December 18

Mandatory Credit: MMA Junkie

A high-stakes top-10 welterweight pairing between the #5 rated, Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson, and the #9 ranked, Belal 'Remember The Name' Muhammad has been added to next month's UFC Vegas 45 card on December 18. The promotion are set to host the event at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Seeing his impressive two-fight winning spree snapped this summer, Thomspon suffered a grappling-heavy unanimous judging defeat to Gilbert Burns in the co-headliner of UFC 264 in July

For Chicago native, Muhammad a December pairing with Thompson will come as his fourth walk this year -- the most recent of which came at UFC 263 in June where he defeated former middleweight and welterweight championship hopeful, Demian Maia in a unanimous decision triumph. Nolan King, Mike Bohn, and John Morgan from MMA Junkie were first to report the news of Thompson's clash with Muhammad. 

Noth Carolina kickboxing ace, Thompson had lodged a pair of impressive unanimous decision victory of his own prior to July's unanimous judging defeat to Burns -- including a first Octagon loss for Geoff Neal in the main event of UFC Vegas 17 last December. As well as halting Vicente Luque at UFC 244 in November of 2019. 

The veteran striker holds prior victories against former champions, , Johny Hendricks, and Robert Whittaker in the UFC, as well as other high-profile wins against Jorge Masvidal, Rory MacDonald, Patrick Cote, and Jake Ellenberger. 

As for Muhammad, the 33-year-old began this year with a unanimous decision win over Dhiego Lima in February -- before making a quickfire turnaround the following month in an eventual second round 'No Contest' against Leon Edwards after he suffered an inadvertent eye poke. 

Undefeated in his last six straight Octagon walks, Muhammad has scored UFC victories over the likes of Maia, Lyman Good, Curtis Millender, Tim Means, Jordan Mein, and Randy Brown to name a few.