Belal Muhammad is confident he stops Leon Edwards at UFC 304.
Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) rematches welterweight champion Edwards (21-3 MMA, 13-2 UFC) in the July 27 main event at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
Muhammad had to go on a 10-fight unbeaten streak to finally earn his shot at a UFC title. Having beaten numerous specialists during his run, Muhammad feels prepared to have a breakout performance against Edwards.
“Honestly, I think I go in there and knock him out,” Muhammad said in an interview with Sneako. “When I look at my last stylistic matchups, I fought the best striker in the UFC in (Stephen) ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson). I fought the best grappler in the UFC in Demian Maia.
“I fought great finishers in Vicente Luque. I fought Gilbert Burns on three weeks’ notice. I think all those fights added up to this one fight – like I said, God’s plan. … All those things, they just leveled me up.”
Muhammad sees himself having a similar performance to the one he had at UFC 280, where he finished Sean Brady by TKO to hand him his first-career loss.
“I think right now, I’m the best version of myself,” Muhammad said. “And I think that Leon’s going to get in there, him and his team there in Manchester, they’re going to be surprised. They’re going to be in for a rude awakening.
“People will say whatever they want to say, but my last full camp I knocked out Sean Brady. Gilbert Burns fight was a three weeks’ notice fight. So if we’re going off my last full camp, it was a knockout. This fight, I’m going to knock out Leon Edwards. We’ve been training for this guy for two years.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.