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Leon Edwards' coach Dave Lovell has made a huge claim about his fighter's UFC 304 defeat, and it changes everything.
Edwards surrendered the UFC welterweight to Belal Muhammad, who scored a unanimous decision victory in their main-event bout at UFC 304 last weekend in Manchester, England.
The Brit, who had defended the championship against Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, looked sluggish and well off the pace against Muhammad, who even won the striking exchanges.
The Palestinian-American took 'Rocky' down at will and slammed him on his head in the second round.
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Edwards enjoyed a late flurry, opening up a wound on his opponent before losing on the judges' scorecards.
His coach has since claimed the 32-year-old suffered a 'few niggles' in training camp that hampered his wrestling defence and offence.
"I'm not making any kind of excuses for him, but we had a few niggles in camp," he revealed to Submission Radio.
"His back was niggling him so he couldn't wrestle the way he really needed to offensively and defensively, you know, because of the niggle that recurred about maybe 2 or 3 times.
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“Well, not taking nothing away from Belal's performance, you know he did well, he done well. The best man won on the night. But Leon will be back."
Talks between Edwards and Lovell about withdrawing from UFC 304 were discussed, but the MMA star wanted to compete on the card.
"Well, believe it or not, we had a powwow about it, and I was very dubious because these niggles was going on for about maybe five, five or so weeks on and off," explained Lovell.
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"He had to go to a chiropractor, regular massages. But again, after one session it was back to square one.
"In the back part of my mind, you know, I was thinking, ‘Well, should we go for this?’ But because he hadn't fought for so long Leon said he wanted it.
“So, we just pushed forward with the injury, train through the injury and try to, you know, get through and get a victory. Unfortunately, it never happened."
Topics: Leon Edwards, UFC
Nasir Jabbar