| UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | July 27, 2024 | |||
| Venue | Co-op Live | |||
| City | Manchester, England | |||
| Attendance | 17,907 [1] | |||
| Total gate | $6,720,000 [1] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that took place on July 27, 2024, at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England. [2]
The event marked the promotion's fifth visit to Manchester and first since UFC 204 in October 2016. [2] Despite the event taking place in Manchester, the event was held based on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7) (Las Vegas) time with preliminary fights starting at 23.00 British Summer Time (15.00 PDT), and the main card starting 03.00 BST, which is the standard start time for UFC pay-per-view events of 19.00 PDT, which drew massive criticism from fans and fighters. Fans believed the matches should have started earlier (19.00 BST, or 11.00 PDT) for the UK audience. [4]
A UFC Welterweight Championship bout between current champion Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad headlined the event. [5] The pair previously fought at UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs. Muhammad in March 2021, where the fight was declared a no contest following an accidental eye poke which left Muhammad unable to continue. [6]
An interim UFC Heavyweight Championship bout between the title holder Tom Aspinall and Curtis Blaydes co-headlined the event. [7] They previously met at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall in July 2022 in which Blaydes won after Aspinall injured his knee fifteen seconds into the bout keeping him out of competition for a year. [8]
A middleweight bout between Christian Leroy Duncan and Robert Bryczek was scheduled for this event. [9] However, Bryczek withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by former LFA Middleweight Champion Gregory Rodrigues. [10]
A women's strawweight bout between Ravena Oliveira and Shauna Bannon was scheduled for this event. [11] However, Oliveira withdrew from the bout due to an injury and was replaced with promotional newcomer Alice Ardelean. [12]
A bantamweight bout between Ramon Taveras and Caolán Loughran was scheduled for this event. [13] However, Taveras had to withdraw from the bout due to an injury and was reportedly replaced by Hecher Sosa. [14] [15] It was later reported that Sosa would not be competing at the event as Loughran would face Jake Hadley instead. [16] [17] At the weigh-ins, Hadley weighed in at 137 pounds, half a pound over the bantamweight non-title fight limit. The bout proceeded at catchweight and Hadley was fined 20 percent of his purse which went to Loughran. [18]
The event originally featured $50,000 fight night bonuses, which were raised to $100,000 before the event. [19]
| Main card | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| Welterweight | Belal Muhammad | def. | Leon Edwards (c) | Decision (unanimous) (48–47, 48–47, 49–46) | 5 | 5:00 | [a] |
| Heavyweight | Tom Aspinall (ic) | def. | Curtis Blaydes | KO (punches) | 1 | 1:00 | [b] |
| Lightweight | Paddy Pimblett | def. | King Green | Technical Submission (triangle choke) | 1 | 3:22 | |
| Middleweight | Gregory Rodrigues | def. | Christian Leroy Duncan | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Featherweight | Arnold Allen | def. | Giga Chikadze | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Preliminary card (ESPN 2 / ESPN+) | |||||||
| Featherweight | Nathaniel Wood | def. | Daniel Pineda | Decision (unanimous) (29–27, 29–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Women's Strawweight | Bruna Brasil | def. | Molly McCann | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Catchweight (137 lb) | Jake Hadley | def. | Caolán Loughran | Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–28) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Flyweight | Muhammad Mokaev | def. | Manel Kape | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Early preliminary card (ESPN+ / UFC Fight Pass) | |||||||
| Welterweight | Oban Elliott | def. | Preston Parsons | Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 30–27, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
| Light Heavyweight | Modestas Bukauskas | def. | Marcin Prachnio | Submission (arm-triangle choke) | 3 | 3:12 | |
| Welterweight | Sam Patterson | def. | Kiefer Crosbie | Submission (arm-triangle choke) | 1 | 2:50 | |
| Heavyweight | Mick Parkin | def. | Łukasz Brzeski | KO (punches) | 1 | 3:23 | |
| Women's Strawweight | Shauna Bannon | def. | Alice Ardelean | Decision (split) (28–29, 29–28, 30–27) | 3 | 5:00 | |
The following fighters received bonuses. [21]
