This past Thursday UFC CEO, Dana White, announced that Leon Edwards will defend his welterweight title in a rematch against Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 304, on July 27th.
The two first shared the Octagon back in 2021 when the contest ended unceremoniously in round two following an accidental eye-poke by Leon Edwards.
Since then, ‘Rocky’ Edwards has gone on to win four fights in a row, winning the 170lb title in the process. After winning five fights in a row, Belal Muhammad has made himself undeniable, finally getting his long-awaited title shot.
Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen see a ‘very difficult’ task ahead of Muhammad
Edwards’ first title defense came against Kamaru Usman, and UFC legends Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen believe that because of the performance he put on last time out on home soil – at UFC 286 – it makes for a difficult task for Muhammad.
“The Leon Edwards that showed up in London last year against Kamaru Usman, was a much better version than what fought him in Salt Lake City six months prior.
“If Leon Edwards continues to improve at the rate that he improved, it’s going to be very difficult to take the belt off him.” Cormier said on the recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy.
The Brit’s last fight came against Colby Covington at UFC 296 this past December, and he dominated the challenger over the five-round main event. In the lead-up to that fight, Covington distastefully went at Edwards by goading him about his late father.
“All of a sudden you’re drawn to Leon there’s no way around it.” Chael Sonnen claimed. “He goes out against Colby, he looks maybe better than ever.
“The reason that is so relevant is because Belal Muhammad may not be the decorated division one wrestler that Colby was, but his fighting style is really similar, and when Leon went out there and was not only able to stop Colby’s wrestling, he scored two takedowns himself.” he added.
Belal Muhammad reacts to the main event announcement
When ‘Remember The Name’ found out about the biggest fight of his career thus far, he had just finished up a training session with Islam Makhachev, in Newark New Jersey.
Although it was always likely to be Muhammad next, without the announcement there were no guarantees that he wouldn’t get looked past.
“Nothing is ever in stone until I see a contract or until I see a poster and finally now, seeing the poster, seeing it come out of (Dana White’s) mouth on Instagram, because I’ve been waiting for that announcement. For him to finally do it, it was kind of surreal.” Muhammad said on The Anik and Florian Podcast.
Muhammad admitted that he didn’t know that he and Leon would be the main event, and presumed that the interim heavyweight title fight between Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes would come above him.
“Also I didn’t know it was going to be the main event, I was assuming the heavyweights would be ahead of us, but to see it happen like this, it was cool.” Muhammad added.