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Conor McGregor thinks that the upcoming Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad welterweight title bout headlined UFC 304 will be a flop. Edwards, who won the 170-pound title off of legendary champion Kamaru Usman two years ago, is setting up for his third title defense. He will face #2 ranked welterweight Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 304 in Manchester this July. Muhammad, of course, has been at the front of a title and comes into the title bout on a ten-fight undefeated streak. And Conor McGregor has predicted UFC 304 will be one of the worst-selling cards of the UFC in recent history.

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Conor McGregor was recently streaming on the platform Kick, where he answered many questions asked by the fans. During one such question, ‘Mac’ gave his thoughts on Edwards and his upcoming UFC 304 fight against Muhammad. The Irishman felt that too many of Leon Edwards’ fights went to a decision, and predicted fans would not be very interested in watching him fight Muhammad, who is infamous among fans for going to the decision.

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“He fought Leon last, that was a decision. There’s too many decisions going on with the Leon fella. Leon Edwards loves a decision. And then he’s fighting another decision guy, ya man Belal [Muhammad]. So, not great times in the welterweight title picture. 200 [thousand PPV] buys, not even. 150 thousand buys if it’s even a PPV. It’s probably not even a PPV,” claimed McGregor.

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One of the main reasons the UFC seems to have dragged its feet on making Edwards-Muhammad since last year is thought to be Muhammad’s lack of popularity among fans of being a ‘boring’ fighter because most of his fights go to a decision. Seventeen of the Palestinian’s twenty-three (or 74%) victories have come via a decision, with only five stoppages in his career so far. And Conor McGregor felt that because of this lackluster matchup, UFC 304 will barely do 150k pay-per-view buys.

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McGregor, of course, is gearing up for his much-awaited comeback at UFC 303 against Michael Chandler in a welterweight bout. While the Irishman does not expect UFC 304 to do well, his UFC 303 card has already set the UFC record for gate revenue collected despite his fight against Chandler not having any real stakes (such as a title, contendership, etc.). But, despite ‘Mac’s long absence and the questions about his abilities as a fighter, Leon Edwards wants to fight McGregor.

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Leon Edwards wants ‘Mac’ at the MSG after Muhammad

Leon Edwards told Ariel Helwani in a recent interview that he wants to fight Conor McGregor next. The Englishman posited that he could fight the Irishman at the Madison Square Garden if both of them were able to win in their upcoming fights.

“Let’s give him the opportunity to become champion, give me the opportunity to take out a guy like Conor McGregor… He goes out there and takes out Michael (Chandler), I take out no one remembers his name and we’ll go from there, New York, Madison Square Garden. That’s the fight, that needs to happen and should happen,” he told Helwani on the ‘MMA Hour Show’.

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Edwards’s call-out just goes to show the massive and continuing star-power Conor McGregor commands, and his enduring popularity among fans despite his recent past. The former two-division champion has fought just four times in the last eight years and lost three of them. In addition, the 35-year-old is coming off of a potentially career-ending injury and is getting up in age as he sets up to face Chandler.

A fight with McGregor still means a massive payday for any fighter and gives a boost to their popularity. And Edwards, despite being a champion, and the decline in McGregor’s career, wants his own ‘red-panty night’.

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Do you think Leon Edwards will get a fight against McGregor anytime soon in his career? Drop your views in the comments below.

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Written by

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Kanishk Thakur

2,731 Articles

Kanishk Thakur is a senior UFC writer at EssentiallySports with over 2500 articles. A seasoned writer with about 5 years of professional writing experience, he has expertly covered the heated rivalries in the fight game and delivered meticulous reports of athlete payouts here at ES. Additionally, he also unravels stories that occur outside the cage, in fighters' lives. Conor McGregor even shouted out Kanishk's spread on Forged Irish stout on his socials. When he's not drafting his next piece for his readers, you can find him hunched over a book.

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Edited by

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Sakshi Jain

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