Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad last met three years ago but with the fights and accomplishments of both men since that point, it’s hard to take that meeting into consideration ahead of the rematch.
At UFC 304 this weekend, they will meet again in the main event as Edwards looks to defend his welterweight title for the third time.
The one aspect of their first encounter that can be used as a measuring stick is to see which man has improved the most since that point in time.
Many would point to Edwards’ recent fights against fellow top welterweights as the difference, if they were predicting “Rocky” to come out on top.
Anthony Smith Believes Leon Edwards Is Improved Fighter Heading Into Belal Muhammad Rematch
Anthony Smith believes that Edwards has improved more out of the two men because we’ve seen him have success against a higher level of opposition.
Muhammad has beaten several top contenders since his first encounter with Edwards but the Brit’s recent wins over Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington stand out.
Not only did he get his hand raised against both men, he was successful at fending off their heavy grappling approaches, which Muhammad is sure to use as his game plan in Manchester.
Smith spoke during an event preview for ESPN MMA about how he gives the champion the edge because of what we’ve seen him do against two of the best wrestlers to ever grace the 170-pound division.
“I would believe it’s probably Leon. I think that he’s been in harder fights versus better guys, that’s no disrespect to the guys that Belal has beaten but they’re not at the level of a Kamaru Usman. I think the Colby fight was a big deal for Leon, not because of the way that he won or what he was trying to prove, I think that style is impossible for people to deal with including Kamaru Usman, who a lot of people think is the welterweight greatest of all time.
“I think the way that he made Colby look where he was so uncomfortable on his feet he couldn’t even shoot, we’ve never even heard of that. He didn’t even have to defend takedowns because he was so good on his feet that Colby didn’t want to shoot. I thought that was a big deal.”
Read also: UFC 304: Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad 2 Weigh-In Live Stream & Results
