UFC 304: Co-op Live; Manchester, England
Belal Muhammad had the absolute perfect gameplan to take the welterweight strap off of Leon Edwards. However, just having a gameplan isn’t everything. He instituted it at will. As Edwards spent most of the night on his back foot, with no answer.
The pressure the now former champion faced was intense to say the least. He pressed forward with a jab that was pinpoint. Then the ability to lock his hands and pull Edwards to the ground (9 times out of 13), forcing the sniper to struggle defensively with his wrestling. Edwards reacted to everything coming at him, leaving himself open.
In now an eleven-fight unbeaten streak, Muhammad has improved across the board. From in the clinch to his cardio. And his game is even better near the fence. Picking up the unanimous decision 48-47 2x, 49-46. One of the things that has come out about the camp Muhammad had is, he brought in boxers to work on improving his boxing. And he went upstairs 86% of the time, opening up the wrestling.
The Absolute Perfect Gameplan But Can It Be Duplicated
There probably isn’t a desire for a trilogy next. Or possibly anytime soon. It just wasn’t anywhere close to making it make sense. But the new champion didn’t specifically call out anyone as the hunter is now the hunted.
Now Dana White has an interesting choice. The most electric fighter in the division, if not the organization as a whole is Shavkat Rakhmonov. He has 18-fights, and 18-finishes. Rakhmonov doesn’t have lights out power, but his jiu jitsu is his superpower. The longest he’s been pushed to is the ending of a third round, and that happened only once.
For as good as Muhammad is becoming on the mat, “Nomad” is levels above him. And his striking is better, especially in space. His footwork is solid, but his kicking game could be better. We just have not seen Rakhmonov face top tier talent in the UFC. So under the bright lights and heavy pressure…. who knows how he reacts. Another issue is, despite this performance, Muhammad is not a finisher in the slightest.
Muhammad would no doubt push the pace early and try to tire him out with some dirty boxing in the clinch. Which might be his only hope. White may say that fighters can say whatever they want, but there is one matchup that he’ll probably want to stay away from.
With Muhammad being Palestinian the likelihood of a fight between him and All-American Colby Covington is between slim and none. And he might be the only one who’s cardio pace is better than Muhammad’s in the division. But who knows, they say money talks… and if there’s lots of it around, White will be all for it.
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