UFC 304 Preview

The UFC will be invading the Co Op Arena in Manchester, England for UFC 304 on a night that features two title fights and a list of native heroes. The main event will be a rematch for the welterweight title between English champion Leon Edwards and #2 Belal Muhammad.

The two originally fought in 2021 but after just 18 seconds into the second round the fight was ruled a no contest due to an accidental eye poke leaving Muhammad not able to continue. Since then, Edwards has won four straight including becoming champion and two successful title defenses.

The champion most recently defended the belt at UFC 296 with a unanimous decision victory over three-time title challenger Colby Covington. Edwards won the title at UFC 278 with one of the most devastating knockouts and come from behind wins in championship history against Kamaru Usman.

Is Edwards feeling the pressure of having the home field advantage? 'I feel like [fighting on home soil] helps my confidence a lot,' says Edwards. 'I like being around my friends and my family, especially fight week. So to be able to have them all there as normal. Like when I'm fighting in Vegas, not everyone can come, you know? So to be just an hour away from my house and have all my friends and everyone there, I think it's extra motivation.”

After a feeling out process in the firs round of their first fight, Edwards feels he is prepared for the type of pressure Muhammad will bring a second time around. “It's just about my experience, you know. I fight at a high level, and have done for a long time now. And going off the back to back camps, I fought Usman twice, and then Colby, and then him, and they're all wrestlers, you know? So I feel like going off the back of those camps has helped me to go into this camp. You know how to approach it and the game plan.”

Edwards addressed the rumors of moving up to middleweight to become a double champion. “I wanna become double champ. I love to move up. I wanna defend my belt as many times as possible first and then look to move up. I wanna go down one of the best welterweights to ever do it. So if I had to do that, you need to get a second belt and beat all the records, you know?”

While Edwards knows there are big fights if he moves up, he is focused on defending his title. “I don’t think there’s really any big money fights right now in the welterweight division,” Edwards said. “Just tough opponents in the division, but there’s no big star that would add more value. Shavkat [Rakhmonov] obviously is a good talent. Everyone’s going on about him. Obviously, Ian Garry, we trained together before. So, there’s a story behind that as well.

“I’m focused on Belal right now. Go out there, take care of business next weekend and after that let’s see where the cookie crumbles.”

The last time Edwards lost a fight was in his first meeting with Usman back in 2015. Since then, he has gone 12-0-1 and is in the prime of his career at 32 years old. The first fight with Muhammad did not tell much of a story, but Edwards had good first round in the fight. However, both fighters have improved since that meeting so Edwards will need to be at the top of his game if he wants to remain the champion.

Is he confident?

“I’m gonna definitely finish,” Edwards said. “I feel like he’s there for it. I feel like he’s tailor-made for me, the way he fights. I’m going for the finish, for sure.

“[Vicente] Luque ain’t the Luque from back in the day, you know? [Stephen] ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson] ain’t the ‘Wonderboy’ — ‘Wonderboy’s’ 41 now? 40 years old. These are not me. I’m a young 32-year-old and going into my prime, full of confidence, just became champion by knocking out the pound-for-pound No. 1. It’s two different mentalities and two different kind of guys you’re going against. He has improved a little bit, but they’re not me. I feel that is the difference. He knows it, and when we go out there, I’ll show it.”

Since the no contest against Edwards, Muhammad has won five straight fights including wins over former title challengers Gilbert Burns, Stephen Thompson and Demian Maia. He has been calling for a rematch with Edwards and the 36-year-old will finally get his wish under the brightest lights and in hostile territory.

Muhammad has not had anything positive to say about Edwards and it has continued into the fight on Saturday. “Yeah I don’t think Leon has any fans if I’m being honest. Like how can you be a fan of the guy? He’s not loud, he doesn’t talk, he doesn’t tweet, he doesn’t promote himself, he just has the belt,” Muhammad said.

Despite Edwards’ criticism of his opponents since their fight, Muhammad believes he has improved. “I fought the striker, the grappler, the wrestler, the knockout artists,” Muhammad said. “Every single one of those camps, I’ve learned something new from each guy and I've gotten better every single camp, so I've just been nothing but in the gym, grinding hard every single day for this one moment, for this one match.”

Muhammad explained how taking the title from Edwards would be an added bonus to becoming champion. “But now that it's Leon Edwards, it just makes it that much better because it's the guy that I disliked, the guy that I hate, and a guy that, when we were supposed to fight back then, it was supposed to be a small show on the (UFC) Apex,” Muhammad said. “Nobody was there. Now we're fighting on the biggest stage in his home country in front of a huge crowd, and it's going to be that much more epic when I beat him.”

Edwards responded to Muhammad’s large claims of what he will do in the fight. “I feel like that’s why he’s been talking a lot of s*** since the fight got made about what he's going to do and how easy the fight's going to be and blah, blah, blah,” Edwards said. “I don't know what he's doing. The way he talks, like he's going to take me down and look at my coach and then let me back up. It's like, mate, shut up. Everything that you say you’re going to do, you’ve never done. None of it has ever happened in your career. So I feel like, let him talk. He has to back it up on fight night, and I think we both know what's going to happen now. I’m excited to finish him and put an end to it.”

The challenger has gained considerable confidence since training with former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. “It benefits me everywhere,” Muhammad said. “Physically, mentally, spiritually, it just puts me on another level. I said it before and people were making fun of me like, ‘Oh, get off his jock blah blah blah.’ Training with him and getting advice from him is worth 20-30-40-50 days with anybody else. Just being able to feel his strength, feel his pressure, feel his knowledge too that he gives you. And to have him give me advice and what he thinks I should be doing for this fight and breaking down Leon. And telling me what he thinks the game plan should be. The knowledge is endless. Because to me I think he is the GOAT of the MMA world and the UFC. And just like a brother that could message and ask. And anytime I send a question he’ll respond. It’s just literally priceless to have that guy in my life.”

The Chicago native continued, “There’s no hidden juice, no secret with them. Their team is just all about hard work,” Muhammad said. “It’s just about overworking. When Khabib gets there, it’s twice the overwork and twice the push. It’s a different level. And I think that’s why you see a lot of those guys mentally strong because they’ve been through the hardest things in their camps, they’ve been through the hardest parts, the hardest scenarios in all their practices. And then he continues to push you on and if you don’t like it, he’ll just tell you to leave. You’re not strong enough to be a part of it, then you can just leave. There’s no sugarcoating. There’s no, ‘Let me give you a couple of softballs,’ in their gym. They’re all killers, they’re all beasts. And anytime I get a chance to work with them or train with them, I level up.”

If Muhammad can emerge victorious it will certainly shake things up in the welterweight division as there are several contenders who all believe they have earned their title shot. However, it would be difficult to deny Edwards his rematch after two dominant title defenses prior to this fight.

The co-main event will also be for a title as English champion Tom Aspinall will defend his interim heavyweight title in a rematch #4 Curtis Blaydes. The two originally met in a headliner in 2022 but the fight only lasted 15 seconds after Aspinall suffered a knee injury giving Blaydes the TKO win.

Aspinall won the interim title in his last fight with a quick KO of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November. The unfortunate loss to Blaydes has been his only loss in his last 11 fights. The 31-year-old believes the winner of the rematch determines who the best heavyweight in the world truly is.

"Let's make no mistake, this fight is for the best heavyweight - the #1 heavyweight in the world," Aspinall said. "Regardless of titles, which one's the undisputed, and which one's the interim, and all that kind of stuff.... the real people, the real fans, the real guys know this fight defines who is the best heavyweight in the world."

"Jon Jones and Stipe are doing their thing. They've got a title, fair play, whatever. But, this is the number one guy in the world fight," Aspinall added.

While Aspinall believes this fight is for the title of the best, he does not believe a fight with undisputed champion Jon Jones will materialize. "No. It's not gonna happen, mate," Aspinall said. "It's not happening. I'm not bothered about it.

"I'm not saying that I wouldn't like it and absolutely love that fight. I think I made it pretty obvious that that's the fight that I wanted. That's the one, of course, but I don't know. Can I swear on this thing? I'm shooting in the dark with that one. I was gonna say something else, but I'm shooting in the dark. There's nothing going on with that."

Blaydes is known as one of the best wrestlers in the heavyweight division, but Aspinall has prepared for the grappling if the fight makes it there this time around. That’s probably where I spent the most of this camp is on my back with guys on top of me,” Aspinall said. “It’s not been a very, Curtis Blaydes is not a very comfortable guy to train for. Do you know what I mean, you’re getting up off your back. See the way I work it is I work it with multiple training partners so I’ll be starting on bottom, I get them off, the energy that it takes to get a big guy off is, you know, you expend a lot of energy.

“Then I restart on my back with a fresh partner, like it’s exhausting man, it’s just exhausting training for this guy and I’ve done everything I can so we’ll see on Saturday how it goes.”

Since joining the UFC Blaydes has had a long road to his first title shot. That journey has included impressive win streaks that were halted by devastating losses. He most recently defeated rising contender Jailton Almeida by second round KO in March rebounding well from a bad TKO loss to Pavlovich close to a year earlier.

The 33-year-old has arguably been one win away from a title shot three different times in his career, he can erase the heartbreak with a win over Aspinall on Saturday. He commented on the criticism he has faced after suffering bad KO losses.

“I wish people would take that into account when they judge or critique heavyweight,” Blaydes said. “Like, ‘Oh, he got knocked out! He’s a bum!’ No, it’s heavyweight. If you watch [Sean] O’Malley against [Chito] Vera on [UFC] 299, if that was heavyweight, it wouldn’t have went five rounds. I promise you. The way O’Malley was hitting Vera, that’s not going past two rounds. Just because they don’t hit as hard.

“It’s not that we’re not as skilled. It’s that we have to be a little more skilled, I think, in order to strike. That’s why I like to wrestle. This is a dangerous game at heavyweight.”

Blaydes has kept a positive mindset about his losses in the UFC. “People are like, ‘Blaydes has a glass jaw.’ I got knocked out by Derrick Lewis, Sergei caught me but I wasn’t asleep, and [Francis] Ngannou, but again, I wasn’t asleep,” Blaydes said. “Three heavy, heavy hitters. And I ate one from Mark Hunt, a real overhand — I ate that. I don’t think I have a glass jaw. I just think it’s heavyweight and we all hit hard.

“It’s almost a different sport when you compare it to other weight classes, the things you can get away with. You can flick out a lazy, inside leg kick [at other weight classes] and if you get hit with a hook, it’s not the end of the world. Not at heavyweight. That’s what happened to [Alexander] Volkov. He flicked out a lazy one with Derrick [Lewis] at the end of the fight, gets knocked out.”

While remaining positive, Blaydes has been able to recognize his mistakes but see the success he was having in fights he has lost. “People at home are like, ‘Blaydes is a bum, his hands are ass.’ I’m like, did you watch the first round?” Blaydes said. “I was piecing him up. Yeah, he caught me. He knew, ‘This guy is way too fast, I’m just going to stand here and if I get him, I get him,’ and he got me. I hate that.

“People probably view him as a better striker than me just because he got me with an uppercut. It wasn’t the most skillful thing in the world. I almost view it as I knocked myself out because I shot into an uppercut, which only makes it worse.”

Blaydes knows what his strongest asset is. “I wear it like a badge of honor,” Blaydes said. “A lot of people want to talk smack, ‘Oh, he wants to wrestle.’ You get in there, you stand in there with a heavy-hitting heavyweight and you know you only get one ‘you zigged where you should have zagged’ and it’s over. Let’s see if you wrestle or not, at least for a little bit.”

Both Blaydes and Aspinall are going to bring a fight, and one will leave Manchester with a belt.  However, whether either of them want to admit it, they are waiting on the champion Jon Jones who is expected to defend the undisputed belt against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic. Does Blaydes agree with Aspinall that their fight is for the best heavyweight in the world?

“Yes, this is the real belt in my mind. In my mind, Jones vs. Stipe is just their retirement fight,” Blaydes said. “Not to be rude, but they’re both one or two fights away (from retirement). More than likely, this is their get-the-bag-get-out fight, which is fine. That’s how I view it.”

A Blaydes win will shake up things in the heavyweight division, but it is unlikely he or the UFC will want him to wait around on the winner of Jones and Miocic. Could there be a rematch with Pavlovich looming?

The rest of the main card:

Lightweight - #15 Bobby Green vs. Paddy Pimblett

Middleweight - Christian Leroy Duncan vs. Gregory Rodrigues

Featherweight - #6 Arnold Allen vs. #10 Giga Chikadze

ESPN+ Prelims:

Featherweight - Nathaniel Wood vs. Daniel Pineda

Women's Strawweight - Molly McCann vs. Bruna Brasil

Bantamweight - Jake Hadley vs. Caolan Loughran

Light Heavyweight - Modestas Bukauskas vs. Marcin Prachnio

Early Prelims on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass

Welterweight - Oban Elliott vs. Preston Parsons

Flyweight - Muhammad Mokaev vs. Manel Kape

Welterweight - Sam Patterson vs. Kiefer Crosbie

Heavyweight - Mick Parkin vs. Lukasz Brzeski

Women's Straweight - Shauna Bannon vs. Alice Ardelean