After an agonizing wait, Belal Muhammad will lastly get his alternative to rematch Leon Edwards for the UFC welterweight title.
Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) has been endlessly prodding at Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) to assign a date for them to run it again, and it’ll occur at UFC 304 on July 27 in Manchester, England.
UFC CEO Dana White introduced the matchup Thursday on social media. As well as, White introduced a co-feature of interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in a rematch with Curtis Blaydes, plus Paddy Pimblett vs. Bobby Inexperienced.
Edwards, No. 1 within the newest USA TODAY Sports activities/MMA Junkie welterweight rankings, will try and make his third consecutive title protection within the bout. He claimed gold in August 2022 with a surprising come-from-behind knockout of Kamaru Usman, then logged his first protection in an instantaneous rematch.
“Rocky” defeated Colby Covington by lopsided unanimous determination to retain his belt for a second time at UFC 296 in December. He was rumored to headline UFC 300 in April with Islam Makhachev, Shavkat Rakhmonov and Khamzat Chimaev being fights that had been proposed, which resulted in a lot ire from the deserving prime contender.
In the long run, nonetheless, No. 3-ranked Muhammad will get his probability at gold on the power of a 10-fight unbeaten streak that features notables similar to Gilbert Burns, Sean Brady, Vicente Luque and Stephen Thompson.
The one blemish on Muhammad’s resume since January 2019 is the no contest in his first encounter with Edwards at UFC Struggle Night time 187 in March 2021. The combat was halted within the second spherical when Edwards landed an unintended eye poke, and Muhammad was unable to proceed.
Edwards has repeatedly acknowledged he felt he was going to cruise to a victory on that night time, whereas Muhammad argues he was simply warming up after accepting the matchup on brief discover.
With the addition of the title combat, the newest UFC 304 lineup now consists of:
- Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammed – for welterweight title
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC 304.
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