Belal Muhammad will not be pulling any punches against Leon Edwards in the cage on Saturday during the UFC 304 main event, and he did not pull any when speaking with media in Manchester on Wednesday either.
The welterweight challenger has not shied away from the “hatred” he has towards the UFC’s current undisputed 170-pound champion. Muhammad said he has felt disrespected by Edwards and his team since their first meeting in 2021 that ended in a no-contest, when Edwards inadvertently poked Muhammad in the eye rendering him unable to continue.
Muhammad, 36, even explained he’d prefer to dominate Edwards over the full 25 minutes instead of finishing him quickly.
“I want to torture him,” Muhammad said. “I want him to realize how much better I am than him. When you go out there and get a finish, people can say, ‘Oh, you got lucky; it happened because of that.’ But if I go out there and dominate him and beat him in all aspects of MMA — wrestling, grappling, striking, jiu-jitsu — [I'll] get him to the point of making him want to quit. I want to torture him.
“I want him to the point of looking to his coaches, and his coaches have nothing to say, and they walk away because they’re embarrassed. That’s what I want him to feel like on Saturday night.”
Edwards, 32, has gone 4-0 since facing Muhammad. He did so by defeating Nate Diaz to earn a title shot, then winning the belt with a dramatic fifth-round head-kick knockout of Kamaru Usman. The Jamaican-born, Birmingham, England-raised fighter defended the title with a unanimous decision over Usman in the immediate rematch and again this past December, when he took four of five rounds against Colby Covington.
Muhammad has won six in a row since facing Edwards three years ago and served as the official backup fighter for that UFC 296 bout, after which he was critical of the champion’s performance, describing it as “a joke to the division” after the event.
“I’ve been starving for this day,” Muhammad said. “I’ve been waiting for this day forever, and just in general, I just love to fight. I’ve been in the practice room, I’ve been training a full year waiting, waiting, waiting and once we finally got the date it was locked in. … Saturday night’s going to be epic."
Below are some other highlights from UFC 304 athletes on media day:
Kape says he's on weight, Mokaev not on his level
A pivotal flyweight bout on the preliminary card between Manel Kape and Muhammad Mokaev could potentially determine 125-pound champion Alexandre Pantoja’s next challenger.
Kape will be looking to hand Mokaev the first loss of his mixed martial arts career, but first he’ll have to make weight, something that has not been a given in Kape’s recent outings.
The 30-year-old has won four in a row but has also had five different matchups cancelled for various reasons in the past 16 months. The most recent was in April, when he missed weight ahead of a proposed rematch with Matheus Nicolau. Kape also missed weight ahead of the first win on his current four-fight streak but said this time hitting the mark should not be a problem.
“The weight has been good. Nothing to complain [about],” he said. “I’m already 133 so I’m alright right there.”
Kape, who will need to weigh no more than 126 pounds come Friday, added that him being 133 pounds mid-week is a good sign and in fact is the lightest he has been in his career two days prior to a flyweight weigh-in attempt.
The former Rizin champion said he thinks “it’s too early for [Mokaev]” to face a championship level fighter like Kape at this point in his career.
Mokaev is 23 and 11-0 in MMA, with his six most recent wins being in the UFC.
Aspinall knows he's in for tough night
You can hear the confidence Tom Aspinall has in himself anytime the interim heavyweight titleholder speaks of his own abilities. At the same time, he has been the first to compliment the skills of Curtis Blaydes, his co-main event dance partner at UFC 304.
“This guy is the hardest fight of my career,” Aspinall said with zero hesitation when asked Wednesday where Blaydes’ skill set ranks among all of Aspinall’s opponents.
Aspinall also spoke fondly of Blaydes during his earlier interview with Sportsnet's Aaron Bronsteter.
Battle of ex-Cage Warriors champs
Caolan Loughran said he respects Jake Hadley but thinks he’s going to “run right through” his opponent on the prelims.
Loughran was the bantamweight champion and Hadley the flyweight champion in England’s Cage Warriors organization before each signed with the UFC. Hadley is 2-3 in the UFC, with all his bouts taking place at flyweight, and now he’s accepting this fight at 135 pounds on short notice after Loughran’s original opponent, Ramon Tavares, withdrew. Loughran believes his size and experience at bantamweight gives him a clear advantage.
“I’ve always respected his skill, and as soon as I heard his name (as a replacement for Tavares), it gave me kind of a lift,” Loughran said. “Anyone who’s been watching U.K. MMA for a while knows it’s a better fight; he’s a bigger name in the U.K. But I think anyone who’s ever fought with me or trained with me, coming up from 125 pounds, you’d be doing very, very, very well to live with me, so I absolutely respect him. Fair play to him, but I think I’m going to run through him to be honest.”
Loughran is 9-1 as a pro and 1-1 in the UFC.
Parkin would want to see teammate Aspinall face Pereira
Mick Parkin hopes to improve to 10-0 as a pro when he faces fellow heavyweight Lukasz Brzeski. Parkin has been looking sharp early in his UFC career. Some of that clearly has to do with the fact he is a training partner of Tom Aspinall. Parkin was asked for his thoughts on a hypothetical matchup between the interim heavyweight champ and 205-pound champion Alex Pereira, should Aspinall emerge victorious on the weekend.
“I think Tom would generally fight anybody, but it would be nice to get him a superfight and get him loads of money," Parkin said. "I do think Tom could beat anybody on the planet at the moment. I think he’s super confident and he would fight anybody. … That would be an amazing fight."
Parkin added that he thinks Pereira’s knockout power and elite striking would translate to success in the heavyweight division.
Blaydes confident he’d handle ‘Poatan’
Curtis Blaydes was also asked about the possible weight class jump for Pereira and immediately said it would be a bad idea. Blaydes said he thinks Pereira could potentially do well against some of the lower ranked fighters, but the size difference would be an issue against any legitimate contender.
“I would [expletive] up Alex Pereira,” Blaydes said bluntly.
Blaydes also described the expected Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic matchup, presumably taking place later this year, as a “retirement fight,” and said that the real heavyweight title is on the line this weekend despite the interim tag.
Most difficult camps of McCann’s and Pimblett’s careers
Paddy Pimplett told SkySports this week that, roughly six weeks ahead of UFC 304, he was not in a good place mentally and that his coaches at one point wanted to have him withdraw from his matchup with Bobby “King” Green. Pimplett said about three weeks ago something changed and he now is fully confident heading into the toughest matchup of his UFC career thus far.
Molly McCann is a close friend and teammate of Pimplett and she said the start of her camp wasn’t good either, as she has been grieving the loss of a family member.
“Personally, this is the hardest fight camp me and [Pimblett] have had,” McCann said Wednesday before adding, “All I know is when the pressure’s on, we know how to pull it out the bag.”
McCann faces Bruna Brasil on the preliminary card in what will be her second time competing in the strawweight division, while Pimblett faces Green in the middle of the main card. The Co-op Live arena, where Saturday's card takes place, is only 30 minutes away from where McCann and Pimblett train, so fans watching can expect the crowd to go wild when those two are fighting.
