Conor McGregor has expressed his disappointment in the UFC 304 card, ahead of the pay-per-view event in Manchester this July.
UFC 304, scheduled for 27 July, will be headlined by a welterweight title fight between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. In the co-main event, Tom Aspinall defends the interim heavyweight title against Curtis Blaydes.
Both bouts are rematches. Before winning his title in 2022, Birmingham fighter Edwards fought Muhammad to a No Contest in 2021. Meanwhile, Wigan’s Aspinall suffered a knee injury 15 seconds into a contest with Blaydes in 2022, before claiming gold in 2023.
Elsewhere at UFC 304, the divisive Paddy Pimblett will be in action, yet McGregor is unimpressed by the card and main event in particular.
“Even look at the welterweight picture, which is my next weight, the welterweight picture,” McGregor said during a Duelbits live stream, referring to his UFC 303 main event against Michael Chandler on 29 June.
“Leon Edwards... Nate Diaz almost knocked him out, had him out on his feet. If that was going on [with me], Leon’s unconscious. Also [Donald] Cerrone went the distance with him.” McGregor stopped Cerrone in 40 seconds in 2020.
“There’s too many decisions going on now with that Leon fella,” McGregor continued. “Leon Edwards loves a decision. Then he’s fighting another decision guy, your man Belal. Not great times in the welterweight title picture.
“[UFC 304 sells 200,000 pay-per-view] buys probably, not even. [Maybe] 150,000 buys, if it’s even a pay-per-view. It’s probably not even a pay-per-view [...] I think Curtis and Tom is a good fight.”
McGregor’s fight with Chandler will be the Irishman’s first bout in three years. McGregor, 35, suffered a broken leg in his most recent fight, in July 2021.
The former dual-weight champion sustained the injury in a trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier, who knocked out McGregor six months earlier. In 2014, McGregor scored his own knockout against the American.
The UFC 304 main event will mark Edwards’s third title defence. The Jamaican-born fighter won the gold in stunning fashion in 2022, avenging a 2015 loss to Kamaru Usman by knocking him out in the final minute, before outpointing Usman and Colby Covington in 2023.
