Belal Muhammad (R) and Leon Edwards during their weigh-in (CBS sports)
Belal Muhammad could provide a shock against Leon Edwards at the latest UFC Fight Night and here is the prediction for this clash
Not many would have expected this fight to go ahead given that Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad are nowhere near each other in the rankings.
Further, Edwards was expected to fight the ever impressive Khamzat Chimaev. However, that fight was initially postponed and then cancelled as both starts contracted the Coronavirus.
Khamzat is still suffering from the effects despite making a recovery but Edwards wanted to fight. Rocky, as Edwards is called, hasn’t fought since July 2019 and he seemed keen to accept a call out by Muhammad.
The 33-year-old Muhammad, for his part, is ranked #13 in the UFC Welterweight rankings but he now faces his toughest test against the #3 ranked Edwards.
Both stars are carrying impressive win-streaks coming into this 5-round main event and have similar 18-3 records.
Edwards’ is a little more impressive though as he is on an eight-fight win streak. Muhammad, for his part, has won his last four fights but his most recent fight came in February 2021.
The short turn around would be helpful to Muhammad, and ring rust could be a problem for Edwards.
However, both UFC stars haven’t actually fought a lot of quality talent. Muhammad, for all of his talk of “Remember the name”, has been performing on undercards, except for a few fights.
Edwards might be ranked #3 but only wins over Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone pop out from his win streak.
Both Cerrone and Dos Anjos have seen better days and Edwards has also lost to Kamaru Usman when the pair met in 2015.
Then comes the talk about 5-round fights. Muhammad has never headlined a UFC event while Edwards has.
That experience will certainly be helpful to Edwards and so will his win streak. Edwards is also four years younger than his rival and just seems more rounded than Muhammad.
While the 33-year-old has talked up a great game and even trained with Khabib Nurmagomedov coming into the fight, it is unlikely he will get the win.
The fight should go all the way with Edwards only having two TKO/KO/submissions in his last 10 outings.
Muhammad has just one submission in his last nine outings with no KOs or TKOs.
The fight will go all the way to five rounds and this should help Edwards. Muhammad might have bitten off more than he can chew in this outing but the 33-year-old has been on quite a surge in recent fights.
However, Edwards has the skills, the experience and the quality to get the win, even if he can’t finish Muhammad off.
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