Leon Edwards, 32, notched the second defense of his UFC welterweight title this past Saturday with a one-sided decision over Colby Covington at UFC 296.
The Birmingham native has been an unbeatable force at 170 pounds, riding an undefeated streak in the UFC that stretches back to 2016 and includes victories over Kamaru Usman (x2), Vicente Luque, Nate Diaz, Donald Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson, and Rafael dos Anjos. Leon Edwards previously fought Muhammad in 2021, however the bout was stopped just 18 seconds into the second round after Muhammad suffered an inadvertent eye poke and was unable to continue.
Leon Edwards’ head coach Dave Lovell isn’t sure who’s next to challenge for the UFC welterweight strap, but he’s throwing a name aside from Belal Muhammad into the mix.
“Well, let’s put it real — Belal’s earned his place, hasn’t he?” Dave Lovell said Wednesday on The MMA Hour.
“Even though he still hasn’t done what Leon did. He didn’t go through the tribulations Leon Edwards did. But you know what? He’s earned himself his contendership. To be honest, if I really had a choice, but I don’t think it will happen, I would like Leon to fight [Gilbert] Burns. But Burns had two bites at the cherry. I think maybe they’d want Burns maybe to have a couple more [wins] before [a title shot] if he was going to be a contender.
“But if I had a choice who would be next, I would prefer Burns over Belal, because I think Burns brings more to the table than Belal. Because Leon’s beaten [Muhammad] — well, I shouldn’t say that, he had the no-contest against Belal. It looked like, you can’t judge it by the first round totally, but it looked like Leon obviously had the first round locked down with Belal and he was going in for the kill the second until the eye poke occurred. But yeah, if I had I choice, overall, I would like Burns, but we’ll take whoever they throw at us.”
Belal Muhammad, 35, as well, has been on a tear. The Chicago native is unbeaten over his past 10 octagon appearances and has rattled off five consecutive victories over contenders since his no-contest with Edwards, defeating the likes of Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, Luque, Sean Brady, and most recently Burns.
Gilbert Burns, 37, is just 3-3 over his past six bouts and lost a one-sided decision to Muhammad in his latest appearance, however he’s still Lovell’s top pick for Leon Edwards’ next challenger.