As many had expected a welterweight title fight between current champion Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad will headline UFC 304 in Manchester, England on July 27th.
The 32-year-old Edwards followed in the footsteps of Michael Bisping when he became only the second UK fighter to have won a UFC title after his shock upset victory over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 in 2022.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been such an underdog that night given that he’d gone 10-fights unbeaten prior to that, but nonetheless he’s since proved that 5th round head kick KO win was no fluke as he then defeated Usman for a second time via majority decision in March last year and then put the icing on the cake by convincingly beating Colby Covington by unanimous decision at UFC 296 in December.
Now Edwards will go up against the No.2 ranked Muhammad, who has amassed a 10-fight undefeated run of his own over the past five years, beating the likes of Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque, Sean Brady and most recently Gilbert Burns on his way to a title shot.
This won’t be the first time these two have fought though as they previously locked horns in the main event of UFC Fight Night 187 in March of 2021. On that occasion Edwards got the better of the opening round, but then an accidental eyepoke left Muhammad unable to continue, resulting in a no-contest ruling.
Now they’ll get to settle the score in a rare pay-per-view event in England that will still air at regular North American PPV times, meaning that the main card won’t start until 3am for those in attendance in Manchester.
