This coming weekend at UFC 304, welterweight champion Leon Edwards will make his third title defense, against Belal Muhammad but his head coach Dave Lovell already has his eyes on Edwards’ possible next fight.
The last time ‘Rocky’ Edwards stepped into the Octagon was against Colby Covington back in December at UFC 296 and after an extremely unceremonious lead-up, the Brit dominated the American.
During the time of Leon Edwards‘ reign, Belal Muhammad has had his head down, continuing to grind out impressive victories, making himself unavoidable in the welterweight division.
Dave Lovell highlights Conor McGregor as Leon Edwards’ next opponent
Although Edwards and Muhammad shared the Octagon back in 2021, their bout ended due to an accidental eye-poke, but coach Dave Lovell is pretty confident his student will overcome the task ahead this time around.
“Personally, I think Leon can stop him. If (Belal) gets careless it could be early, but Leon likes to have a look and a feel, if Belal doesn’t walk onto anything, Leon can get him out there in either round 3 or 4, or win a unanimous decision,” Lovell told Submission Radio.
If Edwards does what his head coach thinks he will, several welterweight contenders will be hoping to be next in line to challenge him for his title.
Despite that, Lovell has one name he’d be hoping for next, and it comes with an extremely large payday.
“We’ve got a few options but if we’re talking about a fight financially that can obviously pay more than the average then it’d be the fight with Conor (McGregor). Conor’s obviously mentioned that he would move up to welterweight and fight Leon if he was to beat Chandler,” Lovell continued.
‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor was scheduled to make his highly anticipated UFC return at UFC 303 this past June, however, a broken toe forced him out of his welterweight bout against Michael Chandler.
Although the promotion is yet to announce the rescheduled date of that bout, it is likely to take place in December.
“I haven’t really got nobody I would say I would like Leon to fight apart from if he were to fight Conor, it’d be a great name to have on his CV and plus it’s a mega-money fight, if that was to happen in Ireland, could you imagine?” the head coach stated.
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Leon Edwards and Islam Makhachev have trained together before according to Lovell
Current UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, is considering moving up to 170lbs to challenge for a second title, but he will likely not do so until he has faced Arman Tsarukyan.
Despite that, the Russian champion has made his goals clear and continues to eye ‘Rocky’ Edwards as a potential opponent, in hopes of sharing the UFC Octagon.
That, though, won’t be the first time the two have met in combat, according to Edwards’ coach, Lovell.
“Leon’s had a feel of him already because back in the day they were at American Top Team (together) when they first started out their careers and they did have a little wrestle along with Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and the rest of the boys.
“Islam moving up to (welterweight), would he be big enough, will he have the same effect he has at his weight now, I don’t think so, has he met a sharpshooter like Leon, no he hasn’t,” Lovell claimed.