Things are starting to get personal between Belal Muhammad and welterweight champion, Leon Edwards.
Belal Muhammad has seemingly been the rightful next welterweight contender for some time now, but a fight between him and Leon Edwards continues to be yet to be booked by the UFC.
Prior to UFC 300, UFC CEO Dana White, admitted that the promotion offered Leon Edwards three separate fights to headline the milestone event, and he said yes to all three.
Since then, the Brits manager, Tim Simpson, has confirmed that Belal Muhammad’s name wasn’t certainly one of the three, despite him and the team believing he was Edwards’ next opponent.
Islam Makhachev, Khamzat Chimaev and Shavkat Rakhmonov were the three opponents offered to the welterweight champion.
Belal Muhammad gets personal as he admits he ‘hates Leon’s guts’
Despite ‘Rocky’s’ manager admitting that the team believed ‘Remember the Name’ could be next, Muhammad is adamant that the 32-year-old is purposely avoiding him.
“I hate his guts” Muhammad admitted in an interview with MiddleEasy. “They’re attempting to avoid me (Edwards) attempting to downplay my accomplishments and tell me that I don’t deserve it and that I never earned it, that stuff does nothing but pi** me off, it’s fuelling my hatred for this guy and I can’t wait to get in there and get my hands on him.”
The 35-year-old has undeniably done enough to fight for the title next, especially as there are not any other welterweights ahead of him.
Muhammad’s last fight got here against Gilbert Burns on just two weeks’ notice, and he went on to dominate the previous title contender over three rounds. That win saw him go unbeaten in 10 fights.
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Muhammad wants ‘fairytale’ Manchester fight with Edwards
On the UFC 300 press conference last week, Dana White confirmed that the promotion were going back to Manchester for the primary time in eight years, and that they’re bringing one other PPV to the British fans.
UFC interim heavyweight champion, Tom Aspinall, has since confirmed that he will probably be fighting on the cardboard, with it unknown as of this time whether he will probably be the co-main or important event.
Belal Muhammad wants to finish his ‘fairytale story’ by fighting Leon Edwards on ‘Rocky’s’ home soil.
“I probably have more fans in Manchester than he does, no one cares about him.” Belal claimed. “Me going on the market on his home soil and beating him in front of that crowd over there could be amazing because, I went to London for a UFC event once and the group energy was nuts.
“I used to be like I even have to fight here (UK). For me to give you the chance to go down there, individuals are going to doubt me much more and that doubt does nothing but fuel me. That’d be the fairytale end to my story to get his belt (in Leon’s home country).”
It’s unconfirmed by the UFC as of yet what date they may return to the UK, nevertheless, July twentieth has been touted because the possible date with it likely being for UFC 304.
The possible rematch between Edwards and Muhammad – the 2 first met back in 2021 but it surely resulted in a no contest resulting from an accidental eye poke – would potentially headline the UK’s second UFC PPV event in two years.
