Leon Edwards has heard the things Belal Muhammad has been saying about him. Of course he has. How could he not?
When there’s a guy out there telling the world that you, the reigning UFC welterweight champion, are going to be an easy night of work for him? When said guy claims to be your “kryptonite,” and promises to “walk through” you so effortlessly that afterward people will wonder if you were suffering from food poisoning during the fight? Yeah, those comments will find their way to you.
And, like many people, Edwards has wondered what to make of these comments. Is Muhammad trying to hype the fight headed into their main event showdown at UFC 304 on Saturday in Manchester? Is he trying to hype himself? Maybe he’s building up his own confidence, or intentionally giving himself so much to live up to that it motivates him even more than that shiny gold belt could.
“Or he’s just f***ing delusional,” Edwards said. “The way he’s been talking, it’s like the first fight, that first round, just didn’t even happen. I think we both know that’s nonsense, what he’s saying.”
That first fight, yeah, that’s a sticking point. There’s something about that fight that lends itself to perhaps too much interpretation. It was over three years ago, for one thing. It was also stopped 18 seconds into the second round when Edwards accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye. That leaves exactly one full round for each man to look back on and cite as evidence to prove his own particular view of things.
“He was a hundred percent what I expected in that fight,” Edwards said. “He’s a heavy boxing-wrestling base kind of fighter. His feet are slow. His hands are slow. His movement is slow. He’s effective on his front foot, which is true of most wrestlers. I learned a lot from that fight, but I’m also looking at this as a brand new fight.”
There’s also the question of how each fighter has changed since then. One thing about rematches in this sport, both parties tend to think they’re the one that has undergone the most significant evolutions in the time since the first meeting. For Edwards, that includes facing tougher competition while claiming and defending the UFC 170-pound title.
“I don’t think (Muhammad has) fought anybody under the age of 35 since then, so I don’t know where he’s gaining his confidence from,” Edwards added.
For the record, Muhammad did beat Sean Brady (who was 29 at the time) and Vicente Luque (who was 30), both in 2022. But he also insists that he’s benefitted from facing a wider array of styles since his fight with Edwards.
“I fought the striker, the grappler, the wrestler, the knockout artists,” Muhammad said. “Every single one of those camps, I’ve learned something new from each guy and I’ve gotten better every single camp, so I’ve just been nothing but in the gym, grinding hard every single day for this one moment, for this one match.”
Muhammad’s journey has been a frustrating one at times. He won five straight after his no-contest with Edwards. He’s been campaigning for this title shot for over a year. He wasn’t picky about who he faced for the belt, he said, just as long as he got his crack at it.
“But now that it’s Leon Edwards, it just makes it that much better because it’s the guy that I disliked, the guy that I hate, and a guy that, when we were supposed to fight back then, it was supposed to be a small show on the (UFC) Apex,” Muhammad said. “Nobody was there. Now we’re fighting on the biggest stage in his home country in front of a huge crowd, and it’s going to be that much more epic when I beat him.”
This outspoken confidence from Muhammad, it does seem like a reaction or a response to … something. Maybe it was the long, agonizing wait for the UFC to finally give him his title shot. Or perhaps it was the comments from Edwards’ management suggesting that, while they couldn’t deny how deserving he was as a challenger, their hearts didn’t exactly flutter with thoughts of all the pay-per-view buys Muhammad would bring in.
This, too, is a sticking point between the two men. Each claim the other lacks popularity and personality. Each is also bolstered by his sense of his own fanbase.
“It’s funny coming from his team, because the guy doesn’t even like to do social media,” Muhammad said. “He doesn’t push himself. He doesn’t brand himself. He doesn’t promote himself. Even with this fight, you try to say something to the guy and the guy doesn’t respond back. Even in the Colby (Covington) fight, there was really no back and forth — and Colby’s the easiest guy to go back and forth with. So his team could say whatever they want to say, but they’re the ones not selling. They’re the ones not pushing anything.”
If the big talk and bold predictions are meant to serve as an antidote to that, it might actually be working. For weeks now, Muhammad’s claims about how easily and thoroughly he’ll dominate the champ have made headlines. In that sense, he may be doing Edwards a favor.
“As a challenger, I think you cannot say doesn’t deserve it, far as his win streak,” Edwards said. “But (in terms of star power), I don’t know if he’ll sell a lot of pay-per-views because everyone finds him boring.”
Of course, MMA has a history of fighters using explosive pre-fight talk to counter any concerns about fighting style or drawing power. The way Edwards sees it, however, the sales pitch is only one part of the fight business. The other part comes early Sunday morning in Manchester.
“I feel like that’s why he’s been talking a lot of s*** since the fight got made about what he’s going to do and how easy the fight’s going to be and blah, blah, blah,” Edwards said. “I don’t know what he’s doing. The way he talks, like he’s going to take me down and look at my coach and then let me back up. It’s like, mate, shut up. Everything that you say you’re going to do, you’ve never done. None of it has ever happened in your career. So I feel like, let him talk. He has to back it up on fight night, and I think we both know what’s going to happen now. I’m excited to finish him and put an end to it.”
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