It’ll be in enemy territory and happen overnight, but Belal Muhammad is just eager to get his hands on UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards.
It’ll be in enemy territory and happen overnight, but [autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag] is just eager to get his hands on UFC welterweight champion [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag].
Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) rematches Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) in the UFC 304 main event July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
The prelims for the pay-per-view event will start at 11 p.m. BST (6 p.m. ET) and the main card at 3 a.m. BST (10 p.m. ET) on ESPN+ pay-per-view, following the traditional start times for U.S. pay-per-views. Muhammad will make the walk against Edwards at around 5 a.m. local time.
The inconvenience only adds more to Muhammad’s story in which he’s had to exercise a ton of patience to finally get his title shot.
“For me honestly, I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole career,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I’ve been waiting for this moment since the first Leon fight, just to punch him in his face. Whether it’s 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 8 p.m. – the anger and the fuel that’s inside of me, it doesn’t really matter. I’ll be awake for that. I’ll be awake to frigging punch him in his mouth.
“(People ask), ‘Are you thinking about jet lag? Are you thinking about this?’ I don’t really care about any of that because the adrenaline that’s running through my veins is going to be ready for that night no matter what.”
Muhammad has reached a point where he hates Edwards. Although he’ll be fighting in Edwards’ home country of the U.K., Muhammad doesn’t see himself entering hostile territory.
“I hope his coach shows up at the press conference because I’d rather talk to him or his brother, because Leon’s not really going to bring anything to it,” Muhammad said. “People think I’m going into enemy territory, but bro, Manchester’s full of Muslims. I think it’s going to be a huge, pro-Bully B crowd, and I think there’s going to be more fans there for me than for him.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
Aspinall was asked if he thinks Gane is ducking him.
“Maybe a bit, I don’t know,” Aspinall told The MacLife. “It’s difficult to say like, if he’s getting loads – I don’t know what his aspirations are. He might really want to be an actor. That might be his thing. So he’s thinking, ‘F*ck this MMA stuff. I’m going to go and be the French Arnold Schwarzenegger here. I’m going to crack on with that.’ Fair play to Ciryl, though. Good luck to him. I’ve got nothing against Ciryl.”
Instead, Aspinall will defend his interim title in a rematch against Curtis Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in the July 27 co-main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
“He’s had a few opportunities to fight me, and he’s turned it down,” Aspinall said. “That’s the facts of it. I’m not saying he’s ducking me or he’s not ducking me. Right now he’s being an actor, and I wish him all the best in that. … I do wish him luck with it. No hard feelings against Ciryl. I’m not trying to throw him under the bus or nothing. I respect him. I respect what he’s doing. Has he ducked me? Probably. But all right, fair enough.”
Ahead of his first title fight, Belal Muhammad figures he’s been doing just fine for himself when he gets to put in time with some GOATs.
Ahead of his first title fight, [autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag] figures he’s been doing just fine for himself when he gets to put in time with some GOATs.
Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) in July finally will get the fight he’s been hoping for – a rematch with Leon Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) for the welterweight title at UFC 304, which takes place July 27 in Machester in Edwards’ home country of England.
Muhammad gets his shot at a UFC title thanks to a 10-fight unbeaten streak that includes wins over Gilbert Burns Vicente Luque and Stephen Thompson. The only hiccup in the past more than five years is a no contest in March 2021 against Edwards at UFC Fight Night 187. That fight was stopped in the second round when Edwards landed an accidental eye poke and Muhammad was unable to continue.
Leading into the rematch, Muhammad said he’s had the opportunity to train with former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and currently lightweight champ Islam Makhachev – and he gave them praise at the highest levels from a different sport.
“Any time they’re around, I try to get as much time with them as possible,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I always say one day training with Khabib is worth 100 days training with anybody else. The knowledge, just the energy you get from them guys, it’s priceless. It’s always good to get a feel from them, get that time.
“… Any time you just get to hang out with those guys – I’m training with the Michael Jordan of the sport in Khabib, and Islam is basically like the LeBron James of the sport. So it’s always good to get those feels with those guys.”
Edwards won the welterweight title with a stunning head kick KO of Kamaru Usman in August 2022. He took a majority decision from him seven months later at UFC 286. This past December, Edwards outpointed Colby Covington for another successful title defense.
Muhammad has five straight wins since his no contest with Edwards. In all but one of them – a win over Demian Maia – he was a betting underdog. Yet he keeps getting his hand raised – against Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, Sean Brady (his first loss) and Gilbert Burns.
Now an extension of his winning streak will come with a historic piece of hardware. If that happens, he thinks working with Makhachev just before he’s putting his lightweight belt on the line next week against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 was crucial timing.
“It was cool to just be in that same mindset as Islam, who is fighting next week,” Muhammad said. “Any time you can be in a champ camp to feel that aura, it’s a great time – especially for myself, with this being my first title fight.
“Talking to them, seeing what their feels are, asking Islam about his fight in Australia (against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284) and how he coped with the time change and what he did over there, what he ate for breakfast and stuff – it’s always good.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
Belal Muhammad thinks the UFC and the fans are sick of Leon Edwards as welterweight champion, and promises to change that at UFC 304.
[autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag] thinks the UFC, the fans and the MMA pundits are sick of [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] as welterweight champion, and he plans to take the belt away from him at UFC 304.
Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) will finally get his long-awaited shot at gold when he challenges Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) in the main event of the July 27 card, which takes place at Co-op Live in Manchester, England (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+).
It’s been an agonizing wait for Muhammad, who will have been inactive for 14 months since he added to his 10-fight unbeaten streak with a unanimous decision victory over Gilbert Burns in a title eliminator bout at UFC 288 in May 2023. The wait has only motivated Muhammad, though.
“It was definitely frustrating the whole waiting, because I love to fight,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I love to be active. I’m always training. I’m always in the gym, so it was hard. But that’s the guy Leon is. He’s not an active champion. He’s very hard to deal with. Even with that Colby (Covington) fight, it took forever for them to book it. For this fight, it took forever to book it. I think it’s more so because this guy’s training to hold onto that belt as long as possible and act like he’s a longstanding champion and looks at it like, ‘Oh, I’ve been a champion for 300 days’ like it means something.
“In the end, your resume is what means something. When you look at the guys like Kamaru (Usman), who was an active champion, those are the champions you respect – guys like (Israel) Adesanya and (Alexander) Volkanovski, who looked up the next challenger right away. After their fight, they had their next fight booked or set, and they always wanted to fight the next best guy. But Leon, he’s a coward. His team, they’re all afraid and they’re all afraid because they know he’s not that good and they know I’m a terrible matchup for them and they’re trying to delay this as long as possible.”
Muhammad, 35, said he’s eager to rid Edwards of his place as champion and take the crown, and even though he has his credits, he thinks he will be a far more compelling titleholder.
“Nobody hears about Leon – Leon doesn’t talk,” Muhammad said. “He comes on a podcast once every three months and he whispers. Nobody can understand what he’s saying. He looks stupid – doesn’t have confidence. He’s awkward. He’s weird. And I think I’m going to do everyone a favor on July 27: After I beat him, we’re going to be done. We don’t have to hear about him no more. The UFC doesn’t have to promote him no more because he’s not going to be the champion, so then he’ll be forced to do stuff himself.”
The wait to receive his title shot isn’t the only thing that’s generated animosity toward Edwards from Muhammad. Their history plays a big role in the situation, as well.
Edwards and Muhammad previously fought in the main event of UFC Fight Night 187 in March 2021. The bout ended in a no contest in the second round after Edwards poked Muhammad in the eye and he could not continue. Muhammad has been pushing for the rematch ever since, and his disdain toward “Rocky” has only grown over the past three-plus years.
“I literally hate his guts,” Muhammad said. “He’s making me hate people with a London accent. People with that British accent piss me off. Anytime I hear him, anytime I see him, it just makes me angry, because honestly, this delay, the talking on their end, the narrative they’re trying to push with even his coaches and his brother trying to call for other people – they were literally calling for Gilbert Burns after I beat Gilbert Burns. Their whole team just pisses me off.
“They all have low IQ. They’re not very smart. They’re the people that give fighters a bad name because people look at fighters and think we’re dumb. No, there’s fighters that are educated. I have a degree. There’s some guys out there that aren’t that dumb, but when you hear Leon talk, his coaches talk, his team talk, you’re like, ‘Man, all these fighters are dumb as rocks.’ That’s what his whole team is. They’re dumb as rocks. I can’t wait to end them and their team. They’re not going to have nobody else after this once I walk through them.”
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Muhammad is expecting a one-sided contest when he does finally step into the cage with Edwards at UFC 304. He has to travel into his opponent’s home country and fight in the middle of the night local time to complete his mission, but said nothing is going to stop him from getting the job done.
“Honestly I think I’m going to rock him really early, and then I’m going to take him down,” Muhammad said. “I could finish him with a TKO, but I’m just going to let him back up. Then I’m going to look to his coach and I’m going to tell his coach, ‘Yo, give him some motivational words. Tell him to man up. Hurry up.’ And his coach is going to look at me like, ‘I don’t know what to tell him.’ Then I’m just going to hit him again and say, ‘Say something to him.’ Then I’m going to hit him again. Then I’m going to get him in a rear-naked choke, probably in the first round, and then right before he’s about to tap, I’m going to let him go. Then I’m going to let him breathe a little bit, go to his corner, hope his coach gives him some better advice.
“Second round, I’m going to take him down again. I’m going to start hitting him, elbowing him. This time, I’m going to look to his brother like, ‘Bro, you’re not going to come in for your brother? You’re not going to help your brother out?’ Then he’s going to look at me, he’s going to curse at me, he’s going to swear at me. I’m just going to be smiling. Then I’m going to look at Leon and be like, ‘All right, I’m done with you.’ Then I’m going to finish him in the second round. You can call me ‘Mystic Muhammad.'”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
Tom Aspinall says the upside of defending his interim title vs. Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 is limited because he’s “not that popular.”
[autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] admits he’s risking a whole lot by rematching [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] in the UFC 304 co-main event.
Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) will attempt to defend his interim heavyweight title when he runs it back with Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) on July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+). His dream scenario was a unification bout with Jon Jones, but after acknowledging that’s likely not going to materialize with “Bones” determined to face Stipe Miocic next, he agreed to move on.
The offer that came through was a rematch with Blaydes, who Aspinall suffered his lone UFC loss against when he suffered a knee injury just 15 seconds into their UFC Fight Night 208 headliner in July 2022. Aspinall likes the idea of getting back the result on his record against Blaydes, but outside of that, he said the upside is minimal.
“There’s unfinished business there, evidently,” Aspinall told The Mac Life. “I’ve said this all along. I’ve said this before we last fought, which is over two years ago now: I believe that Curtis is the toughest matchup in the division for me stylistically. This is no disrespect to Curtis – it’s a bit of a lose-lose fight in the fact that he’s not that popular, is what I’m saying. He’s not that popular.
“The guys that you want to fight are the guys who stylistically you match up well with, and they’re really popular. They’re the guys you want to fight, and Curtis is kind of the opposite of that. I’m not saying anything bad about Curtis or anything, but he’s not the most popular guy ever, and he’s really good. I’m looking forward to it, though. None of that really makes a difference to me. I am preparing now 100 percent for Curtis.”
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After the interim title contest was booked for UFC 304, Jones chimed in on the “No. 1 contender bout” and said he thinks Blaydes could pull off a legitimate victory this time around.
Aspinall doesn’t begrudge Jones for that assessment, but is not bothered by it, because he’s the one fighting in just over two months time, while Jones remains on the sidelines.
“He might (beat me) – it’s heavyweight MMA at the top level,” Aspinall said. “Someone always might win. And I believe in myself. Yeah, I think I’m good. I think I’m the best in the world. But does that make me invincible? No. Absolutely not. It’s heavyweight MMA. One shot off Curtis and the ref might be waking me up. That’s how it works. This is heavyweight MMA at the peak of the mountain. Of course there’s a chance I can get knocked out. I’m fully aware of that. But I’m putting it all on the line, and quite frankly, (Jones) isn’t.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
Manel Kape expects to emerge as a No. 1 contender after UFC 304.
[autotag]Manel Kape[/autotag] expects to emerge as a No. 1 contender after UFC 304.
Kape (19-6 MMA, 4-2 UFC) meets [autotag]Muhammad Mokaev[/autotag] (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in a pivotal flyweight clash July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
With both Kape and Mokaev on winning streaks, “Starboy” is confident that handing Mokaev his first-career loss will lead to a shot at UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
“There is no other fighter,” Kape said in an interview with Grind City Media. “If there was, it’s (Amir) Albazi, but Albazi is injured, so maybe he’s going to have one more fight. Mokaev is the youngest fighter right now. He’s been making a lot of noise, he’s (on a) six-win streak.
“So, there has to be someone. That someone is me that has to shut down this. …I’m going to do my job. I’m going to do my work, and my work is never boring. Everything I’m going to do is a masterclass. Everything I do is special. Everything I do is perfect.”
Mokaev has used his wrestling to control and dominate most of his opposition, but Kape is confident that he’s well rounded enough to handle him.
“I’m not focused on the wrestling. I’m not focused on his strength of wrestling,” Kape said. “How many fighters have you seen take me down? Even Pantoja the champion when he fought me, he didn’t take me down, you think Mokaev is going to take me down? If he takes me down, I’m going to do what I did to David Dvorak, I’m going to take his arm off.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
As much as Paddy Pimblett laid into Bobby Green with some choice words, he also spoke well of him as a fighter ahead of UFC 304.
[autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] had some choice words for [autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag].
Pimblett (21-3 MMA, 5-0 UFC) takes on Green (32-15-1 MMA, 13-10-1 UFC) on July 27 at UFC 304 (ESPN+ pay-per-view) from Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
“He’s a proper tool, lad,” Pimblett told The Mac Life. “He’s a proper weapon. The funniest one is he says he mentioned me. I didn’t mention you. You mentioned me first. So then I mentioned you, you little sausage.
“Everyone talks about me, so it’s all the same. He’s just a proper tool, lad. I think he’s a proper sh*t human being. He’s just a proper wanker, lad. He’s saying that I mentioned him first. He’s just lying. Why would I mention you? Why would I mention Bobby Green, lad?”
Pimblett praised Green’s striking but thinks his recent knockout loss to Jalin Turner this past December impacted his chin – and plans on capitalizing on that.
“He’s got very good striking,” Pimblett said. “He’s got good hands, but his chin’s gone after what happened with Jalin Turner. Jim Miller’s no knockout artist, and he wobbled him once or twice in that fight on UFC 300. I think that is off Jalin Turner absolutely obliterating Bobby Green’s skull into the canvas.
“His striking’s very good, his takedown defense is good, and that’s what he’s going to try and do. He’s just going to try and use his takedown defense to keep it on the feet because he thinks he’ll outstrike me. As I say, his chin’s gone, so strike with me. We’ll see what happens. I can see me knocking him out. I can see me submitting him.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
UFC 304 gets stacked after the announcement of several matchups, including Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad. We break down the key fights on this card in this week’s episode of “Spinning Back Clique.”
On the latest episode of “Spinning Back Clique,” the panel reacts to the big fight announcements for UFC 304.
Last week, UFC CEO Dana White announced several key matchups for the promotion’s return to Manchester including a welterweight title fight between [autotag]Leon Edwards[/autotag] and [autotag]Belal Muhammad[/autotag], [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag]’s defense of his heavyweight interim title against [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag], and [autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Bobby Green[/autotag].
What do these matchups mean for each respective fighter? What can we expect from these bouts?
MMA Junkie’s Goze Garcia, Farah Hannoun, Danny Segura, and host Gorgeous George break down the biggest fights on the UFC 304 card.
Watch their discussion in the video above, and also don’t miss this week’s complete episode of “Spinning Back Clique” below on YouTube.
Curtis Blaydes has no reason to hate Tom Aspinall nor will he manufacture animosity before they step in the cage again at UFC 304.
[autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] has shared the octagon before with UFC interim heavyweight champion [autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] before – but not really.
When they first met in July 2022, all it took was one leg kick gone wrong from Aspinall to suffer a serious fight-ending knee injury in just 15 seconds. Two years later, Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) and Blaydes (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) are set to meet in the UFC 304 main event on July 27 at Co-Op Live in Manchester, England.
“I knew that I would have another opportunity to fight him again,” Blaydes told MMA Junkie. “Whether or not it was for a belt, I wouldn’t have been able to guess it. But I think it’s a little poetic that it is for a belt.”
Thinking back to those 15 seconds, the only real takeaway for Blaydes is that he remembers Aspinall being aggressive and unafraid to put himself within range of a takedown. “He came at me fast and hard,” Blaydes said.
Other than, there’s nothing really of use from their first encounter.
“Immediately after the fight, as I’m not even out of my shorts yet, I’m telling my coach, Vinny, ‘What can we get from this fight?'” Blaydes said. “Nothing happened. I don’t know what to take from it. … There’s not a whole lot you can take from a fight that doesn’t even last half-a-minute.”
Adding to the mystery is the fact that since Aspinall returned from a year-long layoff following their fight, he’s got just a combined 2:22 of cage time in two first-round finishes – TKO of Marcin Tybura in just 1:13 followed by his interim title-winning knockout of Sergei Pavlovich in 1:09 last November at UFC 295.
This doesn’t give Blaydes much to study in terms of film, but he knows better than to believe Aspinall isn’t a different fighter since they met.
“I’m not gonna think that over the past two-and-a-half years he hasn’t added anything else to his game,” Blaydes said. “He just hasn’t had to use it. That’s not to say he doesn’t have it.”
Blaydes, who’s won three of his past four bouts, including a second-round knockout of Jailton Almeida most recently in March, feels like his first shot at UFC gold – interim or undisputed – has been a long time coming. And it couldn’t have come against a better guy than Aspinall.
“He’s a cool dude,” Blaydes said. “There’s no beef. I don’t know if I’ll be able to, but I would like to disperse the negative narrative that you have to hate the guy you’re gonna fight. I’ve been an athlete since I was 9, never hated any of my opponents, won a lot – football, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, MMA. Never hated anybody. You don’t have to hate somebody to physically compete and do your best to win. I know he’s gonna do his best to knock me out; I’m gonna do my best to knock him out. But there’s no animosity behind it. It’s just that’s his job, that’s my job.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
Tom Aspinall doesn’t plan to keep defending his UFC interim title.
[autotag]Tom Aspinall[/autotag] doesn’t plan to keep defending his UFC interim title.
Aspinall (14-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) was hoping to unify his belt with heavyweight champion Jon Jones, but he’ll have to wait until Jones defends his belt against Stipe Miocic first.
In the meantime, Aspinall defends his interim title in a rematch against [autotag]Curtis Blaydes[/autotag] (18-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC) in the UFC 304 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) co-main event July 27 at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
Aspinall’s lone UFC loss came to Blaydes by TKO in July 2022, where he blew out his knee just 15 seconds into the fight.
“My confidence has grown loads since then,” Aspinall told talkSPORT MMA. “Just everything’s better. I’m a new version of myself than I was when I fought (Blaydes) last time, and he’s improved, as well, so whole new fight this time.”
Aspinall won’t hold his breath when it comes to fighting Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC). All he knows is that if he gets past Blaydes, he will only fight for the undisputed title next. Jones and Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) are expected to fight Nov. 9 in New York.
“I’m over it at this point,” Aspinall said of Jones. “I’m fighting Curtis Blaydes. It’s a tough fight and I’m preparing for Curtis, so Jon Jones and all the rest of the politics are pretty irrelevant to me right now. (I’m) focused on him and nothing else. … If I win this one, which I believe I will, the next fight has to be for undisputed (title) – definitely. I’ll wait it out if I have to after this one. But for right now, that doesn’t exist.”
