Belal breaking with tradition by denying Leon Edwards rematch after capturing the UFC title

I can't really say I am disappointed with this decision even though I think that as boring champions go, Belal Muhammad is right up there with his ground-oriented fight style. Say what you will about this sort of technique, but I have never enjoyed a champion that always shoots for takedowns in order to win on points - which is precisely what happened.

Don't get me wrong: I understand that this is a sound strategy and it works out for a lot of fighters, it just isn't very exciting for the people watching the sport. I am happy to see that Leon (and presumably Dana White) are opposed to the idea of giving Leon Edwards an immediate rematch and I can see that this decision isn't just to spite Leon, but because the recent ex-champion wasn't a very big draw as far as viewers are concerned in the first place.

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I had previously mentioned that I feel as though the UFC goes overseas for PPV's that they believe - rightfully - that the cards they establish for these events are not as packed as cards that they save for Las Vegas and Florida. It has been a while since an "international" PPV had a meaningful buy rate as far as Pay Per View buys are concerned and this was not an exception to that rule. While the official data could be a bit muddied by UFC not really wanting to disclose this information, UFC 304 wasn't a big seller because let's be honest, can you really even name most of the fights that only recently just happened? Recent estimates put the PPV buy rate at less than 1 million, with some estimates going as low as 500k. This is still a LOT of money when you consider that it costs around $60 per purchase, but it is far cry from the explosive buy rates the likes of which a McGregor match would bring in, for example.

I'll save that conversation for another day once I have the official information though. For now, let's talk about how new champion Belal Muhammad said immediately at a post-fight presser that he does not intend to give Leon Edwards and immediate rematch, which is often the tradition when a belt changes hands.

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_{While some of the takedowns were dramatic, this doesn't change the fact that Belal was going for takedowns constantly and then failing to do almost anything with the ground game once he got there}

Belal's decision to not give a rematch might have a lot to do with the way that Leon ended their last meetup when the match ended in a no contest after an accidental eye-poke and subsequent doctor's stoppage. At that time, Leon was quite dismissive of giving Belal a rematch and it was 3 years in the making to run that fight back again. Things might be more generous on Belal's part if Edwards had offered a rematch a lot sooner, but he didn't make any effort to do so and well, I guess that would weigh heavily on my mind if I had just stripped him of the belt as well.

Dana also cemented the idea that Rocky doesn't "deserve" a rematch and suggested that Leon "Rocky" Edwards needs to "rack up some victories" before he gets another shot at championship gold.

I have no illusions that this is specifically because of these two fighters and it has everything to do with the fact that both Edwards and Muhammad have a tendency to be quite boring fighters and therefore this fight didn't generate much buzz as far as the card was concerned despite the fact that it was to-billed. Both of these guys are tacticians that bide their time and while this is likely very intelligent as far as going the distance is concerned and racking up W's, it isn't very pleasing to the fans in attendance as well as those watching around the world. I called it right before the fight began when I looked over at my friends at the bar and said "I bet this is the most boring fight of the night!" and it turned out to be exactly that.

The ref had to warn both fighters that "you gotta work!" when they were on the ground muscling for position for the umpteenth time and the crowd was getting restless and starting to boo the fight.

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Time and time again, Belal succeeded in taking down Edwards only to get there and discover what we already knew: Since Edwards is a slow-paced tactician just like Belal is, he was able to defend against this sort of attack as well and therefore we mostly just had around 19 of the total 25 minutes of two guys lying on top of one another with positions rarely changing.

It is frustrating as a fan to see Edwards spend 90 seconds trying to get back to his feet, only to have Belal sweep the leg or just outright pick the guy up and put him back on the ground so that we have to endure another minute or so of the same thing. This was a vast majority of the fight. When they were standing, we saw both fighters land some pretty good strikes, but it was Belal's intention to return the fight to the ground as soon as he realized that Edwards was not going to be able to prevent him from doing so.

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After the fighting was done after 25 minutes, basically everyone in the world who knows anything about MMA was very aware how the judges' decision was going to go. Even though I disagree with this rule, "ground control" and takedowns are a big part of the overall judging process and on our scorecards the only round that was going to go to Edwards was the one where a lot of the round saw both fighters standing. It's tough to get judges to awards a new champion based on points, but there was no denying where this one was going to land and people would have and should have been quite upset if the fight had been awarded to Edwards because he didn't do a great deal in that fight because he wasn't really allowed to.

The press are quite predictable with their questioning and someone is always going to ask about a rematch with the person that whoever won the belt just finished defeating anytime there is a changing of the belt. Both Belal and White were quite steadfast in the fact that Leon is NOT going to get a rematch.

Had it been someone else who was a bit more exciting, I think that a rematch would have been a given and a lot of the time it isn't even up to the fighters as this is built into the contract. Not this time though and I can't really say that I disagree with the management over at UFC as far as this decision is concerned if it was in fact, up to them. Leon Edwards simply isn't a big draw, not that Belal is or anything, but anytime a rather unpopular champion loses the belt, I think that everyone involved is a lot more interested in getting someone in there that the crowds WILL be excited for and sadly for Leon, he just isn't that guy.

Now this is just me predicting the future based on what I know will bring the fans in: Colby Covington is going to be given a shot at Belal. Colby is "Mr. America" and while he is a heel and does a ton of trash talk, this resonates with the fans and Colby is able to sell tickets very well, even if it is for the wrong reasons. The top 5 are Leon (not gonna get it), Usman (hasn't fought in nearly a year and hasn't won a fight since 2021), Rahkmonov (fans never really got behind him), and Jack Della Maddalena (let's be honest, do you even know who that is?) The choice as far as selling tickets and getting people interested is clear.

The problem we will run into if Colby does get this chance is that what Belal did to Edwards, well, it kind of looks like he could do the same thing to Covington. At that point it wont really matter because Colby will have been talking smack for 6 months and the fight will sell like mad and as I have said many times in relation to this sport, the ability to talk the talk has become increasingly important, more important than whether or not someone is actually capable, unfortunately.

That's my prediction but whether or not I am correct I will just say that I am happy that Edwards isn't going to get an immediate rematch because I don't think that there are many people that are interested in watching that.