It has been over three years since Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad first met contained in the Octagon, again in March of 2021.
As is all the time the case forward of a rematch, one of many massive questions heading into UFC 304 is how a lot we are able to study from the primary time that these two males squared off.
Edwards might be seeking to safe the third protection of his welterweight title in the principle occasion on July 27, which he went on to assert after his combat with Muhammad resulted in a no contest.
For Muhammad, who took that combat on quick discover and was unable to proceed preventing after a watch poke, he then produced 5 consecutive wins over fellow contenders with the intention to earn this rematch.
While the combat solely lasted simply over one spherical, “Rocky” was on prime for almost all – however Jon Anik isn’t placing an excessive amount of inventory on what he has seen from this match-up up to now.
Jon Anik Says That Each Males Have Improved Too A lot For Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad 1 To Influence The Rematch
In a current interview with InsideFighting, UFC commentator Jon Anik stated that he doesn’t imagine you may look an excessive amount of into how the primary combat between Edwards and Muhammad performed out when previewing the rematch.
Edwards began uncharacteristically quick on that evening on the UFC Apex however as Anik goes on to state, Muhammad didn’t have the identical sort of preparation forward of time.
“It’s exhausting to not toss it out utterly, it was a brief discover circumstance actually for each athletes however Leon was to face Khamzat Chimaev, one of many thrice these people have been scheduled to have fought and Belal was the man that stepped up.
“Clearly he did present a number of coronary heart and toughness when he did have compromising spots in that combat, one of many hardest eye pokes I believe to observe again simply when it comes to seeing the mix of a human being’s bodily and emotional ache as a result of Belal was not flawed in pondering that when that chance towards Leon went away with a watch poke, that it was going to be exhausting to return by once more.
“However, they’re simply completely different athletes at this cut-off date. So I do know they’ve each leveled up, Leon levelling up perhaps has been simpler for somebody like me with a extra beginner eye to see however I give him a number of credit score for actually these two wins over Usman.”
As a result of time elapsed since their preliminary assembly, Anik got here to the conclusion that each males have modified an excessive amount of for the primary combat to have a lot affect on this high-stakes rematch at UFC 304.
“I’m fascinated to see [the rematch] however largely I’ve to throw out many of the first combat. Regardless that Leon had extra success, I simply suppose Belal’s a very completely different bodily animal than he was and I believe Leon is 25% higher than he was.”
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