Belal Muhammad calls shenanigans on Leon Edwards being offered three fights for UFC 300.
The UFC CEO heaped praise on welterweight champion Edwards (22-3 MMA, 14-2 UFC) for accepting three fight offers for the historic April 13 card at T-Mobile Arena, but none came to fruition. Those three names were alleged to be lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who confirmed the claim to MMA Junkie, Shavkat Rakhmonov, and Khamzat Chimaev.
But none were Muhammad (23-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC), who was declared No. 1 contender after defeating Gilbert Burns at UFC 288.
“If I’m going to be honest, I don’t really buy the whole, ‘We offered him three fights,'” Muhammad said on MMA on Sirius XM. “I know they offered it to Islam, and I know Islam turned it down. But I don’t buy that they offered it to Shavkat because Shavkat was hurt, and I don’t buy that they offered to Khamzat because he ain’t making weight. So, for me, I think it was more so to hype up Leon. Leon doesn’t go on social media, he doesn’t do interviews, he doesn’t hype himself up.
“So, it’s like, Dana White’s a promoter. He has to promote this guy and be like, ‘This guy’s a killer, he said yes to every single fight.’ But if they really wanted him at 300, they knew they could have called me and I would have said yes. It just tells me that they didn’t really want him on 300 or Leon’s a hard guy to deal with. For me, that whole thing was just to hype up Leon and make it seem like he’s a bigger attraction than he really is.”
Despite the long wait, Muhammad has an inkling that an announcement is imminent.
“I feel like something’s going to happen soon,” Muhammad said. “I’m staying positive with it. I know that there’s rumblings of this Manchester card coming up. I don’t even care where, I don’t care the location. I just want a contract with his name on it and a five-round title fight. Please.”
