The No. 2 ranked welterweight contender Belal Muhammad has been asking for a rematch against titleholder Leon Edwards, and it looks like he’s about to get it. The welterweight title battle will happen on July 27 at the UFC 304 in Manchester, England.
Muhammad believes there’s still some unfinished business between them since their battle at UFC Fight Night in 2021 after he suffered an eye poke that brought the match to a no-contest close. Although ‘Remember the Name’ has called out Edwards multiple times since their last bout, the champion ignored him and refused a rematch. The two have never lost a fight since then, and the upcoming battle seems highly anticipated by Muhammad, who believes his opponent is bound to face defeat. In an interview with MMA Fighting, Muhammad said he plans to ‘make the fight look easy.’
“This was literally the biggest mistake of his life. Even dragging this fight out as long as possible because I’m getting better every single day. I’m not a guy that stays out of the gym. We’re growing. Now you’ve got a guy that’s been watching you for a full year. Even when I trained for the backup role, I’ll show you text messages where I sent my boys messages like, ‘ Can we do film study? ’I’d be like, I’m only breaking down film on Leon. I don’t really care about Colby; Colby’s an easy fight.”
“So the whole time we broke down the film on Leon, and we took that as a full camp. Now, having back-to-back camps all on you. I’m growing my own skills to your weaknesses. So the worst thing you did was give me time. The worst thing you could have done was give me extra time. You should have took me back then.”
Although Muhammad feels strongly about defeating Edwards, the champion may not easily go down. The boxer showed remarkable skill and striking power when he dropped Usman and ended his title reign with a brutal head kick. Muhammad analyzed this fight and determined it to be the cause of Edwards’s new fight weakness.
“ He’s got a weak mentality,” Muhammad said. “ He’s not strong enough to go in there and figure it out on his own. Once he starts getting on his back foot, he starts breaking. He starts getting taken down, he starts breaking. Once he starts getting hit, he hates it.”
“Leon is easily broken. I think that’s when you see in between rounds, his coaches, his team, they’re not giving his advise. They’re not telling him, ‘Stay on the outside jab. No. They’re like, ‘You’re looking beautiful, Leon. You’re a beast, Leon. Don’t let him bully you.’ They have to give him those words, those motivational speeches because he’s got a weak mentality. He’s not strong enough to go in there and figure out on his own.’
