The welterweight champion of the UFC, Belal Muhammad, is ready to defend his title against the Australian Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315. Throughout the build-up to this fight, Belal Muhammad has made some wild statements, once even saying he will not attempt a single takedown on Maddalena and fight him on the feet.

However, this is just trash talk to get inside his opponent’s head to gain some advantage before the fight. The real question is, why is Leon Edwards still a subject for Belal Muhammad’s onslaught? Of course, Muhammad beat down Edwards and dominated him for five rounds. And then, when the English striker similarly lost to Sean Brady, Muhammad put on his ‘Bully B’ persona to yet again ridicule Edwards. It seems Edwards will have to tolerate his onslaught unless he can have an answer for Muhammad in the future.

While talking to MMAJunkie, ‘Remember The Name’ reminded everyone as to why Leon Edwards lost to him, and Brady, as he said: “I said if Brady gets at least two to three takedowns, by the third takedown, Leon will break. Um, and uh, it just comes from Leon’s mentally, right? They went after that fight, they had so many excuses. Oh, it was the sun, it was the lights, I didn’t have breakfast, I didn’t do this. Instead of fixing what was wrong, fixing your defensive wrestling, fixing your getting up, fixing giving up your back. And uh I think that’s where he messed up, where it was like it was just an off night instead of, let me get better in all these other areas.”

Indeed, those are some heavy accusations coming from a fighter who dominated Edwards. Not many expected Muhammad to do what he did to Edwards, trolled till he entered the octagon, the victory must’ve been really sweet for Muhammad, as even Edwards did not stop trash-talking Bully B.

But Muhammad’s reasoning isn’t invalid; if Edwards could’ve focused on the task at hand and not on the conditions, we may have seen a different fight altogether.

Belal Muhammad highlights ‘reasons’ as Edward’s biggest weakness

Throughout this pre-fight interview, Belal discussed why Leon can’t stand with the top 5 welterweights right now, as he believes it is very easy to win against ‘Rocky’ mentally. Muhammad had predicted the outcome of the Edwards and Brady clash, saying he knew Edwards would give up the fight after a third takedown. And it all happened quite similarly to what Belal had said. Perhaps Muhammad’s ability to analyze his opponents has become so advanced that he’s messing up with their mental game as well.

When Leon lost to Muhammad, he had a set of reasons ready to explain the reasons behind this loss. Obviously, it cannot sit right with the victor who put in so much effort to earn the victory. Edwards revealed he was facing a back injury going into this fight, and the decision of the UFC to hold the event at 5 am to serve the US fans at their correct fight timings negatively impacted the English striker to the point where he could not reply to Muhammad’s offenses. Naturally, the title-winning performance of Bully B was being underestimated by this statement. Belal knows this, and we know this too. Leon never looked like he had an answer for his title’s challenger, irrespective of the conditions.

And that is the biggest problem Belal Muhammad has with Leon Edwards. Still ranked #3 in the welterweight division, Edwards once rocked through his division and even defeated a version of Kamaru Usman that looked unstoppable, to win the 170-pound gold. As many wonder why he was able to pull that off but is in such a slump now, the answer is quite simple. Leon was keeping up with his division then he had the tools that no one around him had the answer to. However, in the ever-changing grounds of the UFC, it’s never long before the hunter becomes the hunted. That is what has happened to Edwards. He hasn’t been able to keep up with the new guard of the UFC. But he still has so much to fight for, and his formidable performances before may lead him to a title shot in the near future, IF he wins now. But that depends on his answer to just one question. Can Rocky find his way back to the top? Or has he lost his prime version already? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.