UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad had to wait three years to get his shot at a rematch with Leon Edwards.
After their first fight ended in a no contest due to an eye poke, both men put together impressive winning streaks before meeting against at UFC 304.
In that time, Muhammad was very open about his dislike of Edwards for not wanting to fight him, but with that being said, he was honest about a potential trilogy fight between them.
“Rocky” could seemingly put himself back in the title picture with a bounce-back win, and the champion acknowledged that.
Belal Muhammad Questions Whether Leon Edwards Will Recover From Loss & Corner Conflict
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Muhammad gave his thoughts on the current state of the 170-pound division and whether he expects to cross paths with Edwards once again.
He believes that whilst “Rocky” can certainly put his name back in the mix if he goes away and beats a fellow top contender, he doesn’t know whether that will happen.
Muhammad said that it will be an uphill battle for the former champion to come back as the same fighter with the same hunger, after what took place in Manchester.
He also made reference to how Edwards could be dealing with a fractured team after what happened inside the Octagon on July 27.
The Brit’s head coach Dave Lovell, in trying to motivate his fighter, asked him whether he wanted him to wave the fight off and call it a night to which Edwards seemingly told him to “shut the f*** up”.
Leon Edwards told to his coach to "Shut the f*ck up" in between the rounds. pic.twitter.com/sVFOlVK59H
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) August 6, 2024
Leon Edwards told to his coach to "Shut the f*ck up" in between the rounds.
Muhammad said that this factor may mean it’ll take some time before Edwards is on his radar once again.
“There’s not a lot of guys that you’re looking at like this is a clear number one contender, this guy’s clear number one contender, so Leon could go out there, get one win and if it’s a huge win, there’s a possibility that he could get his name back in the mix. But, it all just comes back mentally.
“I don’t know if him and his coach are gonna have like a break-up party now because they looked pretty bad in the corner right. There’s a lot of turmoil there so I feel like there’s gonna be a lot of blame and a lot of embarrassment coming from that team and a lot of just embarrassment from himself.”
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