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Newly-crowned welterweight champion Leon Edwards will make his first 170-pound title defense against the man he stripped of the strap, former division kingpin Kamaru Usman, atop the UFC 286 pay-per-view (PPV) event on March 18 at The O2 in London, England.

But if something catastrophic should happen and the promotion needs a late replacement, No. 4-ranked welterweight contender Belal Muhammad will be ready.

“I’m hoping that ends up being the situation, where they call me out, bring me out down there because you never know what happens,” Muhammad told The Schmo (transcribed by Farah Hannoun). “Guys have been getting injured day of, day before. I see they’ve done backups for every single title fight, so I don’t understand why they wouldn’t wanna put me on that card. But if they give me the Colby fight before that, I’ll take it. If not, I’m ready to be the backup.”

The promotion has been working on a potential headliner between Muhammad and two-time title challenger Colby Covington, but “Chaos” has yet to commit.

Muhammad (22-3, 1 NC) has won eight in a row, with a “No Contest” against the aforementioned Edwards sandwiched between a pair of impressive win streaks. “Remember the Name” is coming off a technical knockout win over Sean Brady at UFC 280 last October.

For the rest of the UFC 286 fight card and PPV lineup click here.

Would it have been better for there to be a clear winner?

Chris Rini

Take care of yourself and I’ll talk to you Monday.

Chris

South Florida will host an entertaining fight between two of the more colorful heavyweights on the roster as “Huggy Bear” and “The Vanilla Gorilla” clash.

UFC 287, which will take place inside Miami-Dade Arena in Miami, Fla., on April 8, 2023, is already looking stacked … and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) apparently isn’t done adding fun fights to is upcoming pay-per-view (PPV) blockbuster.

Just added to the card: a Heavyweight clash between two colorful personalities: “Huggy Bear” Chris Barnett and “The Vanilla Gorilla” Chase Sherman. Neither fighter is currently ranked in their division, but both bring the action in the cage, win or lose.

Barnett is 2-2 since his UFC arrival in 2021, with his last fight being an exciting second round technical knockout of Jake Collier (watch highlights). “Huggy Bear” pulled off a come-from-behind win to stop his opponent with ground-and-pound. He then followed that up with his trademark flip celebration and then chugged beers all the way back to his dressing room.

Sherman, meanwhile, has struggled to earn wins in UFC, going 2-5 in his second run with the promotion. His sole win in his past six fights was a third round technical knockout of Jared Vanderaa, but what a finish that was (watch it) … Sherman earned a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” award.

While this fight may not have much impact on the Heavyweight division, it’s almost guaranteed to be a fun scrap, and “Huggy Bear” always brings the party (if you can’t get Tai Tuivasa, call Chris Barnett).

Also on deck at UFC 287: the highly anticipated Middleweight title rematch between Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya, as well as a Welterweight showdown between Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal. Young phenom Raul Rosas Jr. is also on the card, fighting Christian Rodriguez, and Kevin Holland will return against Santiago Ponzinibbio in an absolute banger of a Welterweight bout.

In short, UFC 287 is a must-watch event.

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To check out the latest and greatest UFC 287 fight card and rumors click here.

“El Pantera” can’t even remember the flying knee he threw in round two after a heavy punch from “CC0” in the first left him on auto-pilot.

Yair Rodriguez had a great performance at UFC 284 this past weekend (Sat., Feb.11, 2023) in Perth, Australia, stopping Josh Emmett with a triangle choke in the second round to win UFC’s interim Featherweight title (watch highlights). But, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. According to “El Pantera,” Emmett hit him so hard in the first round he doesn’t remember the rest of the fight.

“Josh Emmett is as tough as they come,” Rodriguez said during UFC 284’s post-fight press conference. “He landed a punch in the first round, and I went into automatic mode. I don’t remember much after that. I was just fighting. Somebody told me after the fight that I landed a flying knee. I was like, ‘Did I?’ I just remember the moment when I adjusting the triangle.”

Funny enough, we have the interview where Rodriguez was told about the flying knee by UFC backstage reporter, McKenzie Pavacich.

“So, I don’t remember how I really landed into the floor in the second round,” Rodriguez admitted.

“Flying knee?” Pavacich prompted.

“Ah yeah, that’s true! Yeah,” Rodriguez said. “So, I try the flying knee, but he was able to push, that always happens to me I need to make some adjustments. I went to the floor and then when I was on the floor I was able to connect pretty good elbows, that’s why I’m all inflamed … I was able to connect the triangle, I was able to make the the little adjustments to get me to finish the triangle.

“I did pretty well, I guess, you know, I got the submission submission win and I turned the fight around,” Rodriguez concluded. “In the first round he connected on me pretty hard, I was almost out in the first round. And being able to come back from that, it just gave me a lot of pride.”

This is just more evidence that Emmett has that God-power in his fists, and how close he came to winning the fight. Meanwhile, Rodriguez gets to move forward as champion with faith in his auto-pilot, which carried him forward through several minutes of fighting with an impressive variety of strikes and attacks.

What’s next for the new interim champion is still unclear.

Alexander Volkanovski sounds like he’s in no rush to return to the 145-pound division. He’s currently campaigning for an immediate rematch against Islam Makhachev at 155 pounds. That leaves “El Pantera” with some time to wait and recover or have an interim title defense. We’ll keep you in the loop as soon as we know what’s next.

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To check out the latest and greatest UFC 284: “Islam vs. Volkanovski” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.