Belal Muhammad Calls Leon Edwards Weak As Rematch Set for July

For over three years, Belal Muhammad has been calling for a rematch against Leon Edwards. He finally gets his wish when he challenges Edwards for the welterweight title in the UFC 304 main event on July 27.

Initially, Muhammad wanted to settle some unfinished business from when he stepped up as a short-notice opponent for Edwards at a UFC Fight Night main event in 2021.

On that night, Muhammad suffered a brutal eye poke that rendered him unable to continue, resulting in a no-contest.

He immediately called for a rematch, but Edwards effectively ignored the callouts, relying on his dominant start to the fight and seeing no reason to accept.

Since that night, neither fighter has tasted defeat, and Muhammad believes Edwards made a mistake by waiting so long for the rematch — now with his welterweight gold on the line.

“This was literally the biggest mistake of his life,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting. “Even dragging this fight out as long as possible because I’m getting better every single day.

I’m not a guy that stays out of the gym. We’re growing. Now you’ve got a guy that’s been watching you for a full year.

Even when I trained the backup role, I’ll show you text messages where I sent my boys [messages] like, ‘Can we do film study?’ I’d be like, I’m only breaking down film on Leon. I don’t really care about Colby. Colby’s an easy fight.

“So the whole time we broke down film on Leon and we took that as a full camp. Now having back-to-back-to-back camps all on you. I’m growing my own skills to your weaknesses.

So the worst thing you could have did was give me time. The worst thing you could have did was [give me] extra time. You should have took me back then.”

As he studied Edwards in hopes of eventually earning that rematch, Muhammad got to know the 32-year-old UFC veteran quite well.

He began recognizing tendencies and habits in his fight style, especially when Edwards was preparing for grappling-heavy opponents like Kamaru Usman or Colby Covington.

While Edwards ended up beating Usman twice and recently earned a decision win over Covington, Muhammad saw enough in those performances to feel like he’s actually built to dismantle the reigning UFC welterweight champion.

“I think when you look at stylistically the reasons why they thought Colby would be a bad matchup for him — it was cardio, it was pressure, it was taking him down, keeping volume in his face, and I do all of those better than Colby,” Muhammad said. “I do all of those better than Usman.

“Usman in that third fight, he wasn’t the same Usman. People can say whatever they want. I think he came back too soon off that head kick [knockout], but in the second fight, it was volume, pressure, and it was breaking Leon, and Leon’s easily broken.”

That fight back in March 2023 saw Edwards down on the scorecards heading into the final round when he uncorked a vicious head kick that ended Usman’s title reign.

When they fought for a third time just nine months later, Edwards eked out a majority decision win to retain the belt and effectively close the book on their rivalry.

Muhammad believes it was the fight where Edwards won the belt that actually changed him moving forward because he struggled to deal with Usman’s pace, pressure, and wrestling before landing the knockout late in the fifth round.

In his two subsequent performances, Edwards was victorious, but Muhammad recognized right away how that rematch with Usman changed his style for the worse.