Leon Edwards’ future: Belal Muhammad gives his thoughts on former rival
Former UFC champion Belal Muhammad has given his thoughts on rival Leon Edwards‘ upcoming fight against Carlos Prates.
In his last two fights, Leon Edwards has lost comprehensively at the hands of Belal Muhammad – who took his title – and Sean Brady. Since then, the state of the division has move on in an interesting way, and in the next few weeks, there are plenty of fights at the top of the welterweight division that should tell us a lot about the title picture moving forward.
For Leon Edwards, the next challenge is a clash with striker Carlos Prates at UFC 322, with many believing that this will be another tough fight for him. In a recent video on his channel, Belal Muhammad gave a breakdown of the fight.
Belal Muhammad’s view on Leon Edwards vs Carlos Prates
“Leon, coming off of two losses in a row, is in a very tough spot,” Muhammad said on his YouTube channel. “You never want to be in a spot where you’re on two losses in a row because we’re going to see how bad he wants it. You don’t get any easier fights when you’re the champ.
“Every fight after that is still a tough fight. Every fight after that is still one shot, one win away from getting to a title fight. You’re not getting an easy one with Prates. Prates is very long, he’s a southpaw, he has great power, and he’s very confident coming off of that spinning elbow.
“So for Leon, you just need to get back on your rhythm,” Muhammad said. “Your last fight, you got taken down by Sean Brady. Before that, you got taken down by me. Now you’re going against a striker, so this is more of your world. But I do think you need to implement striking. You need to go with kind of the game plan Ian Garry used of lateral movements, staying out of his power, staying out of his reach, using your kicks.
“He’s going to be longer than you, and when he overextends, you take him down. We’ve seen you shoot, we’ve seen you wrestle, and we’ve seen you wrestle stupidly with Sean Brady. But with this one, you shoot a bad shot on Prates, he’s not going to make you pay for it.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
