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Last weekend saw the headliner for UFC 300 announced, and to the surprise of some, it will not involve reigning welterweight champion Leon Edwards.
Plenty of rumors over recent weeks have linked Leon Edwards to the UFC 300 headliner. In fact, according to Dana White, ‘Rocky’ accepted three different opponents for the event, only for each fight to fall through.
So who, exactly, is next for the Birmingham, England-based star? Part of the issue with working out Edwards’ next fight is deciding who his opponent will be, whether they deserve a shot at his title and whether that matters anyway.
There appear to be four clear-cut options for ‘Rocky’, though, so here’s a look at each of them and whether they’d work out.
#1. Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad
When Dana White announced that Leon Edwards had agreed to fight three different opponents at UFC 300, many fans were shocked to learn that Belal Muhammad was not one of them.
That’s because if you go purely by the UFC’s rankings, ‘Remember the Name’ should be firmly next in line for a shot at the champion.
Muhammad is currently ranked at No.2, behind only Edwards himself and Kamaru Usman, who is now firmly out of the title picture. He’s also riding a lengthy unbeaten streak of ten bouts, dating all the way back to 2019.
What’s more, he has unfinished business with ‘Rocky’, as the two men fought to a No Contest in 2021, when an accidental second round eye poke left Muhammad unable to continue.
With all this considered, a title bout between Edwards and Muhammad sounds like a no-brainer.
However, there are a couple of issues around ‘Remember the Name’. Firstly, while his skills on the microphone have improved over the years, he still doesn’t exactly exude the kind of charisma that a fighter needs to sell pay-per-views.
Secondly, his fighting style is not the most exciting to watch, as it’s so heavily built around his wrestling and clinch work. In fact, he’s only finished two of his last ten wins, with his knockout of Sean Brady being the only outstanding finish on his ledger.
The UFC likes to think of itself as a sport, and if you go by sporting merit, then Muhammad is absolutely the only choice for ‘Rocky’. However, from a more promotional point of view, it’d be easy for White and company to skip over him.
#2. Leon Edwards vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov
Belal Muhammad might make sense as Leon Edwards’ next challenger from a rankings perspective, but it’s hard to deny that he isn’t the hottest fighter in the division right now.
That title belongs to Shavkat Rakhmonov, who is ranked one spot below him at No.3.
Like Muhammad, ‘The Nomad’ is also riding a lengthy unbeaten streak. In fact, he’s never been defeated in MMA point blank, winning eighteen fights in a row dating back to his 2014 debut. In the UFC, he’s 6-0.
However, what separates him from Muhammad is the fact that he’s one of the most deadly finishers not only in the welterweight division but in the entire promotion.
Nobody has lasted the distance with the native of Kazakhstan, including top 15-ranked Neil Magny, Geoff Neal, and Stephen Thompson.
To add to this, Rakhmonov seems capable of dispatching his foes from any area and is just as lethal on the ground as he is on the feet.
‘The Nomad’ has not quite broken out as a star yet, but there’s no denying that to most fans, he’d be a more intriguing foe for Edwards than Muhammad would, and a fight between them would be a much easier sell overall.
Therefore, with all things considered, this might be the most logical step for the UFC.
#3. Leon Edwards vs. Islam Makhachev
The most eyebrow-raising part of the news regarding Leon Edwards and UFC 300 was the fact that reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was one of the potential opponents considered for ‘Rocky’.
Makhachev is undoubtedly a fantastic fighter, but would he really warrant a shot at the welterweight title right now?
On the face of it, the answer is absolutely not.
Firstly, the native of Dagestan has only fought above 155 pounds in the UFC once before, in a 160-pound catchweight bout against Bobby Green in 2022. And that was primarily because Green took the fight on late notice and couldn’t make 155 pounds safely.
More to the point, he’s hardly been the most active since winning the lightweight title in 2022. In fact, although it’s through no fault of his own, Makhachev has only defended his title against a blown-up featherweight in Alexander Volkanovski.
When you consider the queue of lightweights looking to face him – the likes of Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, and Michael Chandler – moving up to 170 pounds seems ridiculous.
However, thanks partly to his links with Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev is a bigger star than any prospective contenders ranked at welterweight. That means he’s a viable choice for the UFC.
More to the point, given the ease in which he’s dispatched the likes of Oliveira, Volkanovski, and Green before, he’d be a huge favorite against any of those aforementioned lightweights.
In fact, based on his overall skills, it’d be hard not to consider him a major threat to Leon Edwards, too.
Right now, making this fight would seem a little unfair from a sporting perspective, making it one of the least viable ideas on this list. However, if Makhachev were to keep winning at lightweight, granting him a shot at becoming a double champ would not be a bad idea at all.
#4. Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev
If the UFC were looking to make the biggest possible drawing fight for Leon Edwards right now, then the best realistic option for his opponent would probably be Khamzat Chimaev.
‘Borz’ remains one of the UFC’s fastest-rising stars. While his schedule has slowed down over the past few years since he burst onto the scene with those three quickfire bouts in 2020, he’s still a proven, dangerous and talented fighter.
In fact, of all of the prospective opponents for ‘Rocky’, Chimaev has the biggest win on his ledger. He defeated former welterweight titleholder Kamaru Usman in his most recent fight in October, using his wrestling to claim a clear-cut decision.
Realistically, then, Chimaev could be seen as the No.1 contender at 170 pounds. The only problem, of course, is that ‘Borz’ won that fight at 185 pounds and hasn’t actually fought officially as a welterweight since April 2022.
Given that his last attempt at making the 170-pound welterweight limit saw him fail miserably and cause a last-second shuffle of the entire card at UFC 279, could Dana White and company really trust him in a title challenge against Edwards?
It’s highly debatable, especially as all of the recent talk centered around Chimaev facing off with Paulo Costa or Robert Whittaker with a potential middleweight title shot on the line.
If Chimaev could guarantee that he’d make the weight for this fight, then it’d be a no-brainer for the promotion to book it, something that they reportedly did attempt to do for UFC 300.
For now, though, it’s a major question mark.
In Conclusion, who should fight Leon Edwards next?
Looking at all four of the potential options for Leon Edwards, it would appear that Islam Makhachev stands out as a no-go right now.
Sure, Edwards vs. Makhachev would be a big fight, but so would Edwards vs. Dricus du Plessis, and nobody is talking about ‘Rocky’ attempting to become a double champ right now.
Therefore, it’s time to pump the brakes on this one until Makhachev has more title defenses to his name at 155 pounds.
Given that Khamzat Chimaev’s future would appear to lie at 185 pounds, it might also be pertinent to rule him out, too. Put simply, unless he could prove that he could make 170 pounds safely, the risk of any title fight falling apart entirely would be too high.
Therefore, the choice should fall between Belal Muhammad and Shavkat Rakhmonov. And although Muhammad is the higher-ranked fighter right now, ‘The Nomad’ would be the better choice.
Rakhmonov is more exciting to watch, holds a more impressive record, and while he’s ranked below Muhammad, his list of wins is just as strong.
With any hope, then, while Leon Edwards vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov could not be put together as UFC 300’s headliner, it will instead headline an event like UFC 302, which is scheduled for June.
