Exclusive: Julianna Peña backs Belal Muhammad to defeat Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315

Julianna Peña sees Belal Muhammad (24-3, 1 NC) winning at UFC 315 against Jack Della Maddalena (17-2) and retaining his UFC welterweight title.

Peña and Muhammad both train at the VFS Academy alongside Mike Valle. DAZN News spoke to the UFC women's bantamweight champion, who will face Kayla Harrison (18-1) at UFC 316, about Muhammad's chances this weekend.

"I think he's going to win," Peña said. "I don't know a harder worker than Belal Muhammad, and he deserves all of the good things that come his way because he is such a great person, and he has put in the work. And when you put in that much work, there's nothing left but to go in there and do your job. And I have faith that he will."

Peña believes Muhammad will quiet any criticism in his first title defence.

"I think they criticize him because they can't relate to him," Peña said of the Palestinian-American fighter, with whom she trains alongside others such as Ignacio Bahamondes (17-5).

"I just love that it still never gets in the way of our training family, because people like Ignacio and myself, we believe in God. Belal is Muslim. And so none of that ever has anything to do with us being a family and training hard together. People might not understand Belal, so they want to hate him. But if they actually knew him, they would love him because he's a really great person."