Palestine is not renowned for producing a large number of mixed martial artists. Belal Muhammad and Ramsey Nijem are the sole fighters of Palestinian descent to make it to the UFC. However, there’s another star on the horizon.

Brave CF’s lightweight champion Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady carries his Palestinian flag into the cage with him each and every fight. As two of the only high profile fighters from Palestine, Muhammad and Al-Selwady recently got together to do some training and talk about their home. Afterward, Muhammad had kind words not only for Al-Selwady’s skills, but also for the company in which he fights.

We met each other through social media; MMA brought us together, said Muhammad. He’s a good kid…We talked about how we train and what we like to train more.

After training for a bit, Belal instantly saw the potential in his countryman. Wanting to see him reach his true potential, he offered him some advice.

I just told him don’t try to rush anything because he’s a monster right now – he’s a beast, said Belal.

According to Muhammad, Al-Selwady is one step ahead of him. The 23-year old is in no rush to get to the UFC thanks largely to the fine treatment he’s been getting at the hands of his current company Brave CF.

The company is treating him really well right now so he said he wants to defend the title some more, he shared. [Al-Selwady] said ‘they been treating me really good, so I just don’t want to leave.

But Muhammad stresses that the reason certainly isn’t his skills. In fact, Muhammad feels he’s beyond the early stages of a UFC career at this point already.

He’s good enough to be in the UFC and fight top guys already, he said. Brave is treating him really well and he’s a smart kid… He’s just doing it the smart way.

And that way is a few more fights in the budding Middle Eastern fight promotion.

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Author Daniel Vreeland is a co-founder of the Top Turtle Podcast, and a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu at New England Submission Fighting in Amherst, Massachusetts.