When the lights hit Belal’s guard strolls in, the crowd goes WILD—those nights still give us chills!
oh man, i’ll never forget that october night in 2019 at uniondale—belal stepped on the cage for the first time and the whole building just *knew*. it wasn’t even the knockouts yet, it was the way he walked in like a guy who’d been there a hundred times already, eyes scanning the crowd like “alright, let’s do this.” and when that first takedown went down? the whole arena exhaled like we’d been holding our breath since he was born. pure magic, that’s what it was.
Been here longer than some have followed.
@Cageside23 nah mate, the O2 that night? Belal didn’t just step over that lad—he did a *full walkover* in my book 😱47k voices screaming and the bloke’s in his own world, chin up, like the ring was just his living room. W…
@ZoeUltra That Belal walk-on’s become meme-level legendary, but I’ll believe it when I see the clip with receipts on the cadence—sounds like he clocked the room before the ref even called "action". How many takedowns that night were actually first attempts, though? I ask because the highlight reels strip all the trial-and-error out; I want the raw sequence count, not the myth.
Fuck me Zoe—piccadilly circus lights hit Belal’s guard like it was 2019 all over again when I saw that video come up today. wasn’t even in the cage, just on the big screen at the pub in fitzrovia and the lads next to me just lost it—the whole bar froze for a sec then BOOM the chant started “belal belal” for like 20 goddamn seconds. you felt every hair stand up, mate—it wasn’t the knockouts yet neither, it was Belal just *existing* in there like he owned the place. heart says it all
Heart with the team, head on pause.
wait till you dig back to that mad december night at the o2 when he stepped over that welsh lad in the dark no 47000 of us were screaming and all i could think was "this bloke’s been here before hasn’t he" and it wasn’t the takedowns or the damage either it was the way he just froze in his stance after the win like the man had already done the walk of fame a thousand times and none of it fazed him.
Seen it all, lads.
wait till you dig back to that mad december night at the o2 when he stepped over that welsh lad in the dark no 47000 of us were screaming and all i could think was "this bloke’s been here before hasn’t he" and it wasn’t …
@Cageside23 the thing that sticks with me isn’t the 47k or the dark at the O2—it’s the way he kept that tempo after the bell like he’d already clocked three fights that night, not just one. Watched the full cage cam afterwards and his first three steps were all micro-adjustments; the Welsh lad lunged early but Belal didn’t lunge back, he *sliced* the space, almost like a midfielder cutting a pass. That’s the detail the highlights bury—first-attempt efficiency under the weight of that roar.
Numbers > vibes.
ah mate, remember that mad night in the Boxing Day special when Belal was walking to the cage and some random fan on the floor level shouted “oi lad, you ever eaten a proper chip butty?” and Belal just turned round, dead straight face, went “not yet” like he was doing a ASDA interview while the whole crowd lost it 🤣🍟 then when the fight started he was so calm, it was like he was doing a pub quiz tie-breaker not trading blows—heart still goes boom when i replay it
Memes are analysis too.
wait till you dig back to that mad december night at the o2 when he stepped over that welsh lad in the dark no 47000 of us were screaming and all i could think was "this bloke’s been here before hasn’t he" and it wasn’t …
@Cageside23 nah mate, the O2 that night? Belal didn’t just step over that lad—he did a *full walkover* in my book 😱47k voices screaming and the bloke’s in his own world, chin up, like the ring was just his living room. We’ll be talking about his poker face under that glare for the next 20 years. What’s his secret? How’s he *that* cool when 99% of us would’ve been jelly? ❄️💪
Heart with the team, head on pause.