Leon Edwards’ Frustration: Why He Calls Belal Muhammad an ‘Annoying Human Being’

Leon Edwards was riding a nine-year unbeaten streak when Belal Muhammad crashed his party this past July, snatching the UFC welterweight title in one of the roughest nights of Edwards’ career. That loss hit hard, and in the months since, Edwards hasn’t said much beyond pointing to the brutal 5 a.m. start time as his kryptonite. Now, looking back, he’s made peace with what went down—sort of—but losing a fight that big? That’s a sting he’ll never fully shake.

“I kind of let this loss sit with me for a little bit, just to get it in [my head] that I actually lost first of all,” Edwards told MMA Fighting. “Then from there, I was able to regroup. Even though it was a loss, it still a close fight, right? Like he won three rounds, I won two rounds on the scorecards on my worst night. So it’s easier to put it behind me knowing that it wasn’t fully me in there on my best night. It was easier to put it behind me that way.

“Obviously a loss hurts, and it’s upsetting, but now I’m at a stage where it is what it is. I believe I am the best welterweight in the division. I’ve just got to go out there Saturday night and prove it and just put all my wrongs right and it starts Saturday night.” This weekend, Edwards gets his shot at redemption against Sean Brady in a five-round UFC London main event. A win could catapult him back into the title picture, and he’s itching to show the world that July was a fluke, not a fall-off.

Edwards has mostly moved on from that Muhammad defeat, but he’ll never stop kicking himself for how it played out. “I watched it before when it first finished, I rewatched it,” Edwards said about the fight. “I haven’t watched it since. I always knew I felt like it wasn’t me, and watching it back, it wasn’t me. It was difficult to watch the way the fight went and knowing that 9 out of 10 times I beat Belal but that one time he got the win. It is what it is.

“[Now] I’m focusing on becoming a two-time world champion. That’s where my head is at.” That night in Manchester still gnaws at him—not just because he lost, but because he knows he wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Their beef goes back to 2021, when Edwards was schooling Muhammad until an accidental eye poke turned it into a no-contest. He rode that momentum to the title, but Muhammad never let it go, stewing until he got his revenge with a unanimous decision in enemy territory. Now, Muhammad’s the champ, and he loves rubbing it in, even claiming Edwards won’t claw his way back to a shot at him. But Edwards isn’t sweating the trash talk—it’s not personal, just annoying.

“He’s just an annoying human being,” Edwards said with a laugh. “Just the way he looks and the way he talks, he’s just annoying. That’s all it really was. There wasn’t nothing personal. He’s just a weird guy.” Unlike Colby Covington, who went full venom in 2023, Muhammad keeps it civil—just grating. Edwards admits losing to that guy stung extra, but at the end of the day, it’s the L that burns, not the name attached. “Because it was Belal [it was worse] but like I said, a loss is a loss,” Edwards said. “It could have been whoever to be honest. It doesn’t really matter who it was. I feel like I’m much better than my last fight was and that’s all it was. It was more on my behalf than anybody else.

“Like I said, I hate to lose and it’s proven by my record and proven my how much I’ve won in the UFC. It is what it is right now. I’m just focused on the next chapter right now.”

Saturday’s fight with Brady is step one in rewriting that chapter, but the bigger prize looms— Muhammad’s got a date with Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 315 in May after Shavkat Rakhmonov’s injury shook up the card. Funny enough, Edwards was originally prepping for Della Maddalena this weekend before the switcheroo. He’s got a hunch about that title fight, too. “It would definitely mean more to me to take it back from Belal,” Edwards said. “I feel like it’s a close fight him and Jack. Jack’s got good scrambles. He’s easily taken down, but he’s good scrambling back to his feet. I feel like his boxing is better than Belal’s. If I had to favor somebody, I’d probably favor Jack in that fight. But let’s see.

“I’m not rooting for none of them to be honest with you. I’d love for it to be Belal so I can get the belt back from Belal, but if it’s not, it’s not. I don’t give a shit who wins or loses. That’s where I’m at.” Edwards is keeping it real—he’d relish ripping the belt from Muhammad’s hands, but he’s not losing sleep over it. Beat Brady, stack some wins, and the title will come calling. For now, he’s all about proving he’s still the welterweight king, one fight at a time.