EXCLUSIVE
Leon Edwards is almost certain to face Belal Muhammad next, according to his long-time coach Dave Lovell.
‘Rocky’ hasn’t fought since outpointing Colby Covington to defend his welterweight title at UFC 296 in December, but he was heavily linked to UFC 300.
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Edwards earned praise from Dana White for agreeing to face three different opponents before the UFC decided he would not feature at last weekend's landmark show in Las Vegas.
Now, he’s about to begin preparing for a fight at UFC 304, which will take place at Manchester’s new Co-op Live Arena at the end of July.
"The UFC is over here in July, so no doubt Leon will be on that bill,” Lovell told talkSPORT MMA’s Kweku Afari at OKTAON 56 in Birmingham on Saturday night.
“Unfortunately, he couldn’t make the UFC 300 bill for whatever reason.
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“The lads that were put to him, Shavkat [Rakhmonov] Khamzat [Chimaev] and Islam [Makhachev], they were all fasting. We were ready to go but it is what it is.”
Lovell almost guaranteed that Edwards’ next opponent will be Belal Muhammad, who is currently riding a nine-fight win streak and is ranked at #2 at welterweight.
He added: "I think it will be Belal [Muhammad] next.
“It’s not written in stone, but 99.9 per cent [of me] thinks it will be Belal.
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“Leon is looking forward to the July bill, he starts his camp next week, for a 12-week camp and we are sharpening up our tools to deal with Mr. Belal.”
Edwards and Muhammad fought in March 2021, but their fight ended in a no-contest after the Palestinian-American MMA star took an inadvertent eye poke in round two.
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Edwards’ coach expects Muhammad to try to wrestle his way to victory, but he is sure the English fan favourite will finally get a win over his rival, whom he accused of feigning injury in their first meeting.
Lovell said: “He got his a*** severed to him for a round-and-a-half in the last fight.
“I don’t see him wanting to stand with Leon. He’ll be looking to grind Leon against the cage, take him down, maul him when he’s down and probably steal a decision that way.
“If that eye poke never happened, I think Leon would’ve finished him in the second round.
“To me, analysing the fight and looking back on it, Belal was looking for a way out and to steal a decision.
“That eye poke, and the noise he made, literally screaming and crying, it’s funny that he didn’t have to go to hospital, didn’t have any eye damage, so what does that tell you?
“If the medics clear him after the fight, what does that tell you? He tried to steal a decision, but payback is a b****, we’ll see.”