Belal Muhammad Beats Leon Edwards via Unanimous Decision to Win Title at UFC 304

Belal Muhammad became the new UFC welterweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Leon Edwards to end UFC 304 from Co-op Live in Manchester, England.

The challenger put together a strong first round. He landed an early takedown that established his wrestling as a threat, but it was the combination of his takedowns and boxing that helped him get the early lead.

Muhammad was able to find a home for his high-volume striking and landed another takedown at the end of the round for good measure.

The grappling continued to be a factor in the second round. Muhammad dropped Edwards on his head and dominated the round after taking Edwards' back.

That rally was short-lived, though. Edwards came out aggressive in the fourth round before Muhammad closed the distance, took him to the ground and spent most of the round in dominant position.

Edwards made one final push to win the fight with under a minute left. He reversed position and rained down elbows on Muhammad, splitting him open and ending on a strong note.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough to keep his belt.

Muhammad's win not only gives him his first UFC championship, but brings some resolution to their 2021 matchup that ended in a No Contest. An accidental eyepoke from Edwards left Muhammad unable to continue and the fight was declared a No Contest.

Rather than run things back right away, Edwards ended up getting a fight against Nate Diaz which propelled him to a shot at the title. Two wins over Kamaru Usman and a title defense against Colby Covington propelled him to the No. 3 spot on Bleacher Report's pound-for-pound list.

Meanwhile, Muhammad continued racking up wins. The Chicago native picked up wins over Stephen Thompson, Vicente Luque and Gilbert Burns on his way to finally getting a title shot.

Now he knows there's a new wave of welterweight title contenders coming for him.

"When my career is all said and done, I want to be the guy that beat every single great guy in my era, every guy that they thought would beat me," he said in an interview with "The Schmo" (h/t Christopher De Santiago of Sports Illustrated). "I want to walk through them all, whoever it is, line them up. You have Shavkat, you have Ian Garry, you have JDM, all these guys. I don't think any of them are really scheduled to fight right now, but whoever the UFC puts in front of me."

Shavkat Rakhmonov is the most obvious contender outside of a rematch with Edwards. However, Jack Della Maddalena and Ian Machado Garry aren't far behind.

Muhammad had to put together a lot of wins to get to this point. Now he's going to have to keep winning tough fights to maintain the crown.