As Israel Adesanya makes his prediction for the UFC 304 main event, Edwards and Muhammad discuss the idea of moving to middleweight.
UFC 304 goes down this weekend, headlined by the welterweight title rematch between champion Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards and long-term rival Belal ‘Remember the Name’ Muhammad.
One man who will be closely watching the action unfold is former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya who, should he recapture the title for a third time at UFC 305 next month, could one day welcome the welterweight winner to his division.
Leon Edwards open to middleweight move on one condition
Should Leon Edwards defeat Belal Muhammad this weekend in Manchester, he’ll officially have three world title defenses under his belt – which is typically the minimum requirement for fans to take the idea of a second title shot seriously.
Luckily, Edwards has both the time and the physique to make such a big money move up to middleweight happen and when asked by Sky Sports what he thought of the idea, ‘Rocky’ simply argued: “Why not?
“I’m only 32 years old, I’ve got enough time to do both [divisions] and I’m big enough to do both, to move up. I feel like I want to get in another one this year, couple more next year and then move up… I’ll be 33 or 34 by then, that’s my plan.”
When asked who he’d like to face at middleweight, the fan-favorite British star acknowledged “I don’t care, whoever is the champion at the time” – however, there’s one fighter he’d never face in the octagon, that being Israel Adesanya.
“Apart from Izzy – I don’t want to fight Izzy. Not because I’m afraid of him, just because we’ve built a relationship where it would be weird to fight him. I’d have to build it up in my brain to compete against him but everyone else, yeah.”
Israel Adesanya makes bold KO prediction for UFC 304 title fight
Just a few hours later, Adesanya would actually upload a video breaking down the UFC 304 main card, including said welterweight title fight, to his official YouTube channel.
Adesanya noted that whilst Muhammad remains a dangerous opponent in close range thanks to his wrestling-heavy style, ‘Remember the Name’ is about to step into the cage against a much-improved Leon Edwards.
“Belal’s got pressure man, he just seems like he’s going to be able to get to people and put it on them, but I’ll tell you one thing, this is a different version of Leon – he’s on a massacre right now.”
Adesanya shared how “I don’t think it’s going to be much different” to their first fight from 2021, in which Muhammad was unable to close the distance as Edwards picked him apart from the outside until an eye-poke brought the fight to an unceremonious halt.
“I think Leon might finish him – I think Leon finishes this fight… I’m trying to see how Belal can win this fight, [he’s got] to get to Leon and wrestle [but] Leon’s got good distance [management], good weapons he uses to make sure you don’t get close.
“And even if you do get close, that doesn’t mean you’re safe because he can take you down too.”
A few days out from UFC 304 and the bookies have ‘Rocky’ as the moderate favorite, yet the former middleweight champion believes that odds aside “This seems like a bad match [stylistically] for Belal,” and that ultimately, “It’s Leon’s fight to win, it’s Leon’s fight to lose.
“When they were fighting the first time before the eye poke, Leon was touching him up; Leon was too crisp and too sharp… I’m going to say finish bro, he’s going to take his time and he isn’t going to rush in, he’s going to be chill [in there].
“Leon by knockout in the second or third round.”
Muhammad also weighs on the champ-champ status, just not his own
So, Adesanya is picking Edwards to successfully defend his welterweight title, and ‘Rocky’ himself is planning an eventual move up to middleweight but would in turn, avoid Adesanya at all costs.
Frustratingly, it’s a similarly complex personal situation for Belal Muhammad, who recently spoke about the weight division below and Islam Makhachev’s desire to challenge for champ-champ status.
Whilst Makhachev has been vocal about his aspiration to secure a second world title, Muhammad revealed at the UFC 304 media day that he’d flat-out refuse to fight the Dagestani wrecking ball, should the promotion offer that fight.
“I’d never fight Islam, he’s my brother so I think for myself, maybe there’s 2 or 3 guys that are next in line after this fight… And then I have a chance to move up to middleweight.
“I’m never really looking that far ahead, but I think he’s [Makhachev] still got some fighters to fight, I still got some fighters to fight. And then, we both could move up.”
It would be interesting to hear Makhachev’s thoughts on whether he’d be willing to shelve his double-champ desires in order to give Muhammad his time to shine.
That being said, we’d argue it’s unlikely that the UFC would want to slow the Makhachev hype-train down by respecting the friendship of the two stars, even for such a veteran as Belal.
UFC 304 goes down this weekend live from Manchester, England.