Kamaru Usman knows all too well how good Leon Edwards is, having been dethroned by him and then beaten again in their subsequent rematch, and as such he believes that Belal Muhammad will also struggle against the current welterweight champion in the main event of UFC 304 in Manchester, England on July 27th.
“I would say I like Belal, but I think Leon (will win),” Usman said on his ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast with co-host Henry Cejudo. “Wrestling is not enough. The sport has changed so much to where guys are learning how to use the cage to get up. It’s not even really wrestling anymore, because if you take a guy down up close to the cage, they’re going to use the cage and they’re going to get back to the feet.
“Guys are getting really, really good at that. … And Belal Muhammad, I don’t feel, is a high enough level of a wrestler to take him down to the center of the cage and keep him down there and win the fight there. Belal, his level is definitely up there now to where he can switch stance. He can fight out of both stances. He mixes it up, and he knows how to control his pace. That’s the biggest thing. You saw it in the Burns fight: He knows how to control his pace.”
“This is a very intriguing fight, but Leon just being the champion, and being confident in being the champion, I think he’s going to be sharp.”
