The UFC’s welterweight division is one of the most terrifyingly stacked weight classes in the promotion. The top five alone boasts Usman, Covington, and Burns, with men as dangerous as Jorge Masvidal filling out the top ten. In a division so full of quality contenders, it’s hard to predict winners, but Belal Muhammad sees himself defeating one of the division’s top contenders.
Muhammad told MMAFighting.com that he not only wants a rematch against Leon Edwards, but that he believes he’ll win.
Belal Muhammad “very confident” of defeating Leon Edwards in rematch
“I would be very confident, especially that fight. It was literally three weeks, and the UFC had to do so much media, so really it wasn’t training. It was just cutting weight to get to that fight.
But after seeing UFC 263, I thought he was going to gas in the later rounds, and then seeing how he was acting in the Diaz fight, he’s one of those guys who’s looking at the clock at the end of every round.”
Belal Muhammad is unfazed by the fact that Leon Edwards actually won that fight, dominating four rounds against Nate Diaz, and that Edwards has never been knocked out or submitted in his professional MMA career. In the fifth round of that fight, Diaz managed to rock Edwards with a heavy strike to the face, but Edwards won the bout via unanimous decision.
Muhammad elaborated on his position, detailing how his high-pressure tactics would play out against Leon Edwards: “I’m one of those guys, I’m not going to let you waste any rounds.
You’re going to be working every single round, every single minute, and you’re going to be gassing out a lot quicker than you did in that fight.”
Last time the two of them fought, it was ruled no contest when Edwards accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye. Muhammad immediately called for a rematch, but both men were booked separately on the undercard for UFC 263. Both won on the day, with Muhammad dispatching Demian Maia, and Edwards winning the aforementioned fight with Nate Diaz.
Following the Diaz fight, Edwards has been vocal about his pursuit of the welterweight title. Edwards is low in the queue for a title shot, with Covington and Gilbert Burns likely ahead of him in the pecking order, so he may well have to fight again to secure a rematch with Kamaru Usman. Whether that would involve fighting Gilbert Burns for the winner of Covington v Usman, or a different bout, remains to be seen.
Do you think Muhammad will be the one to stop Edwards’ title dreams in their tracks, or will Leon Edwards replace the only question mark of his career with a W? Let us know in the comments.
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