| UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The poster for UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | July 27, 2024 (2024-07-27) | |||
| 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 theUltimate Fighting Championship that took place on July 27, 2024, at theCo-op Live inManchester, England.[2]
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The event marked the promotion's fifth visit to Manchester and first sinceUFC 204 in October 2016.[2] Despite the event taking place in Manchester, the event was held based onPacific 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]
AUFC Welterweight Championship bout between current championLeon Edwards andBelal Muhammad headlined the event.[5] The pair previously fought atUFC 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 interimUFC Heavyweight Championship bout between the title holderTom Aspinall andCurtis Blaydes co-headlined the event.[7] They previously met atUFC 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 betweenChristian Leroy Duncan andRobert Bryczek was scheduled for this event.[9] However, Bryczek withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons and was replaced by formerLFA Middleweight ChampionGregory 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]
