A packed crowd in Manchester, England, was silenced on Saturday as Belal Muhammad upset champion Leon Edwards on his home soil with a unanimous decision win to capture the welterweight title in the UFC 304 main event.
It was no secret entering the matchup that Edwards and Muhammad did not like each other. That bad blood stemmed from their first fight back in 2021, which ended in a no-contest due to an eye poke.
Since then fans have wanted an answer to which of the two top fighters in the 170-pound division would be victorious had their original bout not been cut short.
And Muhammad provided fight fans the closure they’d been after with an emphatic win. He outworked Edwards both in the standup and on the ground to become a UFC champion for the first time, going 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 on the judges’ scorecards.
The victory made it six wins in a row for the 36-year-old, improving his unbeaten streak to 11 consecutive fights, while the loss snapped a four-fight win streak for Edwards.
