UFC 304 will take place on July 27 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England in front of Edwards’ home country crowd.
The Birmingham-based fighter will face Muhammad in a rematch after their first fight in 2021 was deemed a no-contest after an accidental eye poke prevented Muhammad from continuing.
UFC President Dana White announced Leon Edwards for his interest in the UFC 300 title, yet, behind the scenes, Edwards revealed that he had offered a title fight against Belal Muhammad, only to be met with silence. Although denied in the past, the fight will now serve as the main event of UFC 304.
But before the chance to fight in front of a home crowd came up, the UFC welterweight champion was given the chance to fight Khamzat Chimayev, Shavkat Rakhmanov, and Islam Makhachev in the UFC 300 headliner. Among the promotion’s biggest logistical challenges are main event competitors.
The stacking of three consecutive pay-per-view cards—UFC 298, UFC 299, and UFC 300—significantly narrowed the talent pool of available headliners. That leaves promotions scrambling to fill the coveted main event slot at UFC 300, which features Alexander Volkanovski and Ilya Topuria as headliners, along with bantamweight champions Sean O’Malley and Marlon Vera.
Despite the whirlwind, Leon Edwards accepted every fight offer, according to Dana White. “Let me say this, Edwards was like three opponents throughout this thing. Leon Edwards doesn’t say no to anybody,” White continued. “This kid is an absolute stud. At UFC 300 [interview] he threw him like three opponents. [He said] yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s willing to take on anybody. The kid is an absolute stud. Thank you, Leon, so much respect. ”
Running behind the scenes for the headliner, Alex Pereira turned into a statement first-round knockout of Jamhal Hill to remain the light heavyweight champion. Edwards then revealed that he was not interested in his pitch to defend his welterweight title against Muhammad at UFC 304.
“I’ve been trying to fight Belal for a while. I’ve been asked for 300, I’ve said yes to everyone, three opponents. I even said, ‘What about Belal?’ And they were like, ‘No,'” Edwards said on The MMA Hour.
I was like, ‘That’s who I’ll fight,’ because I knew it was such a big card, and it would do great [things] for my career,” he continued. , and Chimaev] No, I said, ‘What about Belal? ‘ They didn’t entertain it, so it is.”
The 170-pound champion was right to want to be a part of the event, as UFC 300 broke records for cross-platform video views, impressions, and interactions. The event was the most-watched UFC PPV prelim across ESPN platforms. The event gate of over $16 million made it the third highest grossing event in UFC history. It set a new attendance record for a UFC event at T-Mobile Arena, drawing a crowd of 20,067.