Belal Muhammad Dismisses Coach’s Claim That Leon Edwards Had Pre-Fight Injury

Belal Muhammad is not buying the narrative from Leon Edwards’ coach that “Rocky” wasn’t 100% in their UFC 304 clash.

Muhammad dethroned Edwards via unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 304 in Manchester, England, last month. Edwards subsequently claimed to be feeling “tired” due to the timing of fight, which took place after 5 a.m. BST.

Meanwhile, Edwards’ coach, Dave Lovell, said that “Rocky” went into the fight with a with a "niggle" in his back. Muhammad has dismissed both narratives, advising Edwards’ camp to come up with unanimous excuse. “Remember the Name” believes even Edwards doesn’t listen to his coach and hopes nobody else will, either.

“He’s a joke. Like I said, he was a joke before the fight as a coach and he’s a joke after the fight,” Muhammad told MMAjunkie.com. “It’s funny that they all have different excuses. Leon was like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t sleep,’ and now his coach came out with, ‘Oh, his back was hurting.’ Get on the same page. If you’re going to come up with an excuse, talk to each other at least beforehand. Say, ‘We’re on the way to the arena and Leon got jumped by somebody.’ By ninjas or something like that.

“They’re trying to figure it out, but we had the perfect blueprint to beat him up: It was ‘Bully’ proof blueprint, not [Kamaru] Usman’s. I said it was going to be easy. I made it look easy. He wouldn’t be comfortable with me in the cage, and I knew it was gonna look like that. We know how it was going to end up, and we knew he was going to come up with excuses. I was just waiting to hear what they were. When his coach talks, Leon doesn’t listen. So I’m hoping the world doesn’t listen.”