Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad had an unexpected encounter during the fight week ahead of UFC 304. The duo will fight out their highly anticipated rematch this July. However, they already faced off and exchanged a few words way ahead of the fight.
While preparing for their main event fight on Saturday, Belal Muhammad was riding an elevator at the host hotel. When the doors opened, he saw Leon Edwards and his team standing there. Instead of waiting for another elevator, Edwards and his team joined the title challenger in the elevator. This led to an awkward and tense moment. Once outside, the verbal exchange began.
Edwards called Muhammad a “p*ssy,” to which the title challenger snapped back calling Edwards’ entourage a “pack of p*ssies.”
Edwards described the incident at the UFC 304 media day. He said he saw Muhammad in the elevator and decided to enter anyway. Muhammad, on the other hand, noted that Edwards’ head coach, Dave Lovell, was the only one who started talking to him during the elevator ride.
The interaction remained mostly calm until both teams exited the elevator. Belal Muhammad remarked that Lovell was “screaming something,” but neither Edwards nor his brother Fabian said anything at the time. Muhammad did note that Fabian gave him a “dirty look”. He took that as a potential challenge after the fight.
Belal Muhammad “would rather have” Leon Edwards’ coach to do all the trash-talking
Edwards expected Muhammad to speak up in the elevator. However was surprised that the trash talk only started after they were outside. UFC Embedded cameras captured the entire elevator encounter. The Brit later commented on how Muhammad was silent in the elevator but started trash-talking once they were outside.
Belal Muhammad vs. Leon Edwards (via X)
He questioned why Muhammad did not say anything earlier. Meanwhile, Muhammad found Edwards’ coach more impressive in hyping up the fight. He called him a “little gremlin” and suggested that the coach’s trash talk would make for a funnier build-up.
I’d rather have his coach talk. Because his coach was talking trash, it would be a build-up talking with that little gremlin.
Belal Muhammad said at the media day
Despite the tension, nothing turned physical between the fighters or their teams during the encounter. However, things will get heated up in the octagon. The two fighters will face off in a headliner bout this July, at the Co-op Live arena in Manchester.
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