It was a mixed bag of results for the British and Irish athletes competing at UFC 304, as the promotion returned to the United Kingdom.
Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena played host to the packed card and witnessed one title change hands whilst another champ took another huge step towards unifying the division.
In the main event, Belal Muhammad silenced the British crowd and he was crowned the new UFC Welterweight champion after defeating Birmingham’s own Leon Edwards. The bout was extremely competitive throughout but over the five rounds, the challenger out worked the champion, particularly in the grappling exchanges.
The third round was without doubt Edwards’ best, with ‘Rocky’ claiming a takedown of his own and searching for a rear naked choke but the effort was to no avail.
The scorecards read 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 and Muhammad was crowned the new king at 170lbs.
Post fight, Edwards admitted that he had struggled with the unusual time of the card, with the main card not starting until 3:00am.
In the co-main event, Tom Aspinall all but secured his shot against the winner of Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, as he ran through Curtis Blaydes in just 60 seconds to retain his interim Heavyweight championship. After getting clipped with a sharp shot Aspinall returned with a slick 1-2 and dropped Blaydes. The interim champion followed him to the mat threw several massive shots, forcing the referee to call an end to the contest.
On Tuesday morning, Paddy Pimblett could well see a number next to his name when the rankings are released, following his first round submission win against King Green. There’d been much discussion as to how the pair’s grappling skill sets would compare with ‘The Baddy’ coming out on top with a triangle choke a little over three minutes into the fight.
Arnold Allen got back to winning ways with a unanimous decision win against Giga Chikadze.
It was great night for those who received late call ups to the card, with both Gregory Rodrigues & Jake Hadley collecting wins against Christian Leroy Duncan and Caolan Loughran, respectively.
Nathaniel Wood rounded out the preliminary card with a unanimous decision win but things weren’t quite as good for Molly McCann, who dropped a unanimous decision against Bruna Brazil.
It was a peculiar night for Muhammad Mokaev. ‘The Punisher’ took home the unanimous decision in a relatively uneventful fight against Manel Kape. Post fight, Dana White revealed that the UFC have no desire in resigning Mokaev and that he will part ways the promotion.
Unbeaten British prospect Mick Parkin made himself $100k richer with a first round knock out against Lukasz Brzeski. The Sunderland man had expressed his desire to find his first UFC stoppage heading into UFC 304, and in finding it he was handed a performance of the night bonus.
Oban Elliott and Shauna Bannon both had their hands raised by way of decision wins, whilst Sam Patterson & Modestas Bukauskas sealed their victories with arm-triangle submissions.
Find the full list of UFC 304 results below.
* Main Event: Belal Muhammad defeats Leon Edwards by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46)
* Co-Main Event: Tom Aspinall defeats Curtis Blaydes by TKO (strikes) at 1:00 of Round 1
* Paddy Pimblett defeats King Green by submission (triangle choke) at 3:22 of Round 1
* Gregory Rodrigues defeats Christian Leroy Duncan by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
* Arnold Allen defeats Giga Chikadze by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
* Nathaniel Wood defeats Daniel Pineda by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-28)
* Bruna Brasil defeats Molly McCann by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
* Jake Hadley defeats Caolan Loughran by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
* Muhammad Mokaev defeats Manel Kape by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
* Oban Elliott defeats Preston Parsons by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
* Modestas Bukauskas defeats Marcin Prachnio by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 3:12 of Round 3
* Sam Patterson defeats Kiefer Crosbie by submission (arm-triangle choke) at 2:50 of Round 1
* Mick Parkin defeats Lukasz Brzeski by KO (strikes) at 3:23 of Round 1
* Shauna Bannon defeats Alice Ardelean by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
You can see Muhammad's post fight interview, below:
