Things are beginning to get personal between Belal Muhammad and welterweight champion, Leon Edwards.
Belal Muhammad has seemingly been the rightful next welterweight contender for a while now, but a fight between him and Leon Edwards is still yet to be booked by the UFC.
Prior to UFC 300, UFC CEO Dana White, admitted that the promotion offered Leon Edwards three separate fights to headline the milestone event, and he said yes to all three.
Since then, the Brits manager, Tim Simpson, has confirmed that Belal Muhammad’s name wasn’t one of the three, despite him and the team believing he was Edwards’ next opponent.
Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev and Shavkat Rakhmonov were the three opponents offered to the welterweight champion.
Belal Muhammad gets personal as he admits he ‘hates Leon’s guts’
Despite ‘Rocky’s’ manager admitting that the team believed ‘Remember the Name’ would be next, Muhammad is adamant that the 32-year-old is purposely avoiding him.
“I hate his guts” Muhammad admitted in an interview with MiddleEasy. “They’re trying to avoid me (Edwards) trying to downplay my accomplishments and tell me that I don’t deserve it and that I never earned it, that stuff does nothing but pi** me off, it’s fuelling my hatred for this guy and I can’t wait to get in there and get my hands on him.”
The 35-year-old has undeniably done enough to fight for the title next, especially as there are no other welterweights ahead of him.
Muhammad’s last fight came against Gilbert Burns on just two weeks’ notice, and he went on to dominate the former title contender over three rounds. That win saw him go unbeaten in 10 fights.
Muhammad wants ‘fairytale’ Manchester fight with Edwards
At the UFC 300 press conference last week, Dana White confirmed that the promotion were going back to Manchester for the first time in eight years, and that they’re bringing another PPV to the British fans.
UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, has since confirmed that he will be fighting on the card, with it unknown as of this time whether he will be the co-main or main event.
Belal Muhammad wants to complete his ‘fairytale story’ by fighting Leon Edwards on ‘Rocky’s’ home soil.
“I probably have more fans in Manchester than he does, nobody cares about him.” Belal claimed. “Me going out there on his home soil and beating him in front of that crowd over there would be amazing because, I went to London for a UFC event once and the crowd energy was nuts.
“I was like I have to fight here (UK). For me to be able to go down there, people are going to doubt me even more and that doubt does nothing but fuel me. That’d be the fairytale end to my story to get his belt (in Leon’s home country).”
It is unconfirmed by the UFC as of yet what date they will return to the UK, however, July 20th has been touted as the possible date with it likely being for UFC 304.
The possible rematch between Edwards and Muhammad – the two first met back in 2021 but it ended in a no contest due to an accidental eye poke – would potentially headline the UK’s second UFC PPV event in two years.
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