After an already intense Fight Week, you could have cut the tension with a knife at this evening’s UFC 304 pre-fight press conference.
If the fan excitement and pre-fight press conference is anything to go by; UFC 304 this weekend should deliver one of the most energetic and intense nights in British MMA history – even if it is being held in the middle of the night.
Belal Muhammad claims he’ll ‘torture’ Leon Edwards at UFC 304
Earlier in the week, Belal Muhammad made headlines when he suggested that rather than getting a finish over Edwards, either by KO/TKO or submission, he’d prefer to “torture” him over 25 grueling minutes.
“I want to torture him, I want him to realize how much better I am than him,” the veteran welterweight told reporters, explaining how “When you go out there and get a finish, people are like, ‘Oh, you got lucky, it happened because of that.’
“[But] I’ll go out there and dominate him and beat him in all aspects of MMA – wrestling, grappling, striking, jiu-jitsu, get him to the point of making him want to quit. I want to torture him.”
Leon Edwards fires back at ‘deluded’ Muhammad at pre-fight press conference
Unsurprisingly, those comments didn’t go over too well with Leon Edwards, and it was a mere matter of seconds before the two began arguing on stage at the UFC 304 pre-fight press conference this evening.
“When has he ever tortured anybody? The guy is deluded – he’s the same guy who says he strikes like Canelo [Alvarez],” stated Edwards, referencing a moment on the UFC Embedded series where Muhammad’s striking coach compared his skills to the legendary Mexican boxer.
The conversation then quickly turned to the ‘elevator incident’ from earlier in the week, where the two teams ran into each other and had a particularly tense staredown, with Muhammad later claiming that he’d “smelled fear” from the British champion.
“It ain’t about intimidation, it’s about standing in front of me and me hitting him in his mouth – but he’s going to be real intimidated when we’re in the cage together and that’s all that matters.
“I was like a bear in the woods, I smelled the fear in him,” the title challenger stated, before taking aim at the wider Rocky team: “The same way I smelled the fear in his team, his brother, and his coach – ey, where’s that little b**** at, I can’t see him anymore.”
As the boos from the crowd got louder and louder, Muhammad took the opportunity to address the infamously hostile audience; the vast majority of whom will be firmly on the side of ‘Rocky’ come Saturday night.
“It doesn’t matter. All this energy doesn’t really mean anything – I want you guys to give him some confidence because Saturday night, your boy is getting Headshot Dead!
“I want you guys to wake this guy up, you’re going to be his alarm clock.”
To his credit, Edwards then took the calmer approach, teasing how being so emotionally invested in the fight will be detrimental to Muhammad when the cage door locks behind him.
“100%, he’s too slow anyway but now he’s like angry-tense, he’s going to fall into traps – ey, you’re going to get knocked the f*** out bro, but you know that [already]. Too small, too slow, you’re getting knocked out.”
It was much of the same back-and-forth for the remainder of the press conference, although things certainly ramped up when the pair squared off for the first time since 2021 – Edwards lunging forward to get in Muhammad’s face, who in turn barely moved.
Given that both Muhammad and Edwards have been criticized by fans in the past for being ‘boring’ and not bringing out the best in themselves regarding the promotional side of the MMA industry, it has to be said that both fighters are certainly making UFC 304 fight week an entertaining affair.
With the tension being raised another several notches thanks to the pre-fight press conference, make sure you’re turned in for the ceremonial weigh-ins tomorrow, July 26, live from Manchester.
A reminder that as of July 25, the UFC 304 fight order is as follows – the flyweight bout between Mokaev and Kape has reportedly been moved down from the main card to the prelims, and down again the way to the early prelims.
- Shauna Bannon vs Alice Ardelean
- Mick Parkin vs Lukasz Brzeski
- Sam Patterson vs Kiefer Crosbie
- Manel Kape vs Muhammad Mokaev
- Oban Elliot vs Preston Parsons
- Modestas Bukauskas vs Marcin Prachnio
- Jake Hadley vs Caolan Loughran
- Molly McCann vs Bruna Brasil
- Nathaniel Wood vs Daniel Pineda
- Arnold Allen vs Giga Chikadze
- Christian Leroy Duncan vs Gregory Rodrigues
- King Green vs Paddy Pimblett
- Tom Aspinall vs Curtis Blaydes
- Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad
UFC 304 goes down this Saturday, July 27, live from the Co-op Arena in Manchester, England.