Fight Facts: UFC 304 ‘Edwards vs. Muhammad 2’

Fight Facts is a breakdown of all of the interesting information and Octagon oddities on every card, with some puns, references and portmanteaus to keep things fun. These deep stat dives delve into the numbers, providing historical context and telling the stories behind those numbers.

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TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC FIGHTS: 7,776
TOTAL NUMBER OF UFC EVENTS: 699

The Ultimate Fighting Championship took to Manchester, England, for the first time since 2016 and largely gave the people what they wanted. Most local combatants prevailed over foreign adversaries, although the night's final fight let the crowd down. UFC 304 featured an incredibly rare interim title defense, a Liverpudlian that made the most of a royal opportunity and a bummer of a grudge match where the victor will not be on the roster come Monday.

Dana Was Mad as a Hornet: Midway through the event, fighters went the distance in seven bouts in a row. This is the longest stretch of consecutive decisions in the Octagon since UFC 273 in 2022, when seven straight matches involved the judges, including the co-main title fight.

Free It: Born in Chicago to Palestinian parents, Belal Muhammad is the first fighter of Palestinian descent to win a UFC belt. He outgrappled Leon Edwards to stage the upset.

Two Streaks Enter, One Streak Leaves: By prevailing over Edwards, Muhammad pushes his unbeaten streak to 11 straight while shattering Edwards’ similar run of 13 fights without a loss. He is one of over a dozen UFC fighters to amass this stretch.

DC Forgot It: Muhammad has earned 15 wins in the welterweight division throughout his UFC tenure. “Remember the Name” is now one of eight men to accomplish this feat, with Neil Magny’s 22 the current record.

It Is Still Decided: As he has in eight of his last 10 wins, Muhammad involved the judges as part of his victory equation. The triumphant Valle Flow student saw his finish rate fall to 25% following this decision.

Grindingly Effective: Twelve of Muhammad’s 15 triumphs at 170 pounds have come via decision. This ties him with Georges St. Pierre for the second-most in divisional history. They both trail Magny’s 14.

An Ageism Curse: Before Saturday, Tyron Woodley was the only man at welterweight or lighter to win a UFC title fight past age 35—doing so twice, against the older Demian Maia and later against Darren Till. Muhammad, 36, is now the second to pull this off.

There’s Always One: Ahead of this event, Edwards had never been beaten while on English soil. His first career loss did come in Leicester, England, but it was via disqualification after landing an illegal knee on Delroy McDowell.

Minute Man: Needing precisely 60 seconds to defend his interim heavyweight throne, Tom Aspinall punched out Curtis Blaydes faster than any heavyweight titleholder since Andrei Arlovski leveled Paul Buentello at UFC 55 in 2005.

A Needless Task: Aspinall became the third interim titleholder to defend his disputed strap successfully. He joins Arlovski and Renan Barao, with the former doing this in 2005 and the latter in 2014.

Assaulting Aspinall: Since joining the promotion in 2020, Aspinall has rattled off eight wins, all finishes within two rounds. He maintained his 100% stoppage rate with the knockout over Blaydes, with 14 of his 15 wins coming in Round 1.

Gonna Need a Bigger Vault: As he has done in many past outings, Aspinall claimed a post-fight bonus for his victory—this time $100K. His seven as a member of the roster tie Mark Hunt and Travis Browne for the four spot in the weight class, just two behind divisional leader Stipe Miocic’s nine.

Reaching Mythical Status: The win coming one minute in, Aspinall further lowered his average fight time to just a whisker over two minutes per battle. This puts further distance between him and second-place Drew McFedries’ 2:20 among all UFC fighters with at least five trips to the Octagon.

Flying Colors: Putting Bobby Green to sleep with a triangle choke, Paddy Pimblett is the first to submit “King” since December 2009. At that time, Daniel Pineda was the only fighter who had turned pro out of the other 27 competing at UFC 304.

Not Cool: With the UFC agreeing to boost post-fight bonus checks from $50K to $100K, it made the unprecedented move of giving one fighter two “Performance of the Night” awards. Pimblett is the first in league history to receive this double endowment.

Alive, You’re Coming with Me: Gregory Rodrigues required all 15 minutes to get past Christian Leroy Duncan, beating the Brit on the scorecards. It marks the third decision win for “Robocop” and his first since 2021.

Quietest Records Around: Arnold Allen outdueled Giga Chikadze en route to a win via decision. With 11 triumphs as a UFC featherweight, he is now one of eight in company history to amass over 10 wins in the weight class. Max Holloway’s 20 reign supreme.

Still Wood: Getting the job done by outworking Pineda, Nathaniel Wood earned the nod from all three judges. “The Prospect” has seen his last seven outings reach the final horn, with every one of his 11 UFC bouts escaping the first round.

Brasil Beat Liverpool: As a +275 betting underdog, Bruna Brasil shut down Molly McCann and the home crowd to win a unanimous verdict. Her upset is the third-greatest this year among women to grace the UFC, behind Vanessa Demopoulos’ win at +325 over Emily Ducote.

Bye Felicia: In a paltry effort, Muhammad Mokaev skated by Manel Kape to pick up the contentious decision win. For various reasons, including lackluster performances of late, the organization elected not to re-sign the unbeaten 23-year-old before the night was out. He pushed his record to 13-0 with a no-contest, building the second-longest win streak (seven) in flyweight history.

Might as Well: Lifting his finish rate to an even 75%, Modestas Bukauskas tapped Marcin Prachnio with a third-round arm-triangle choke. He registered his first submission since back-to-back chokes in 2018.

Using Long Limbs to the Fullest: Sam Patterson landed an arm-triangle on Kiefer Crosbie before three minutes elapsed in their bout. The Walford, England, native celebrates 11 of his 12 pro victories via stoppage.

It’s Mick Now: Smashing Lukasz Brzeski in the opening frame, Mick Parkin bumped his undefeated record to 10-0 as a pro. He has earned first-round stoppages in half of those outings.

Never Say Never Again: Coming into UFC 304, Edwards had never lost a 25-minute encounter (26 fights); Bukauskas had never landed a takedown (seven UFC fights); and Muhammad (27 fights), Green (49 fights) and Pineda (46 fights) had never competed in Europe.

Them Superpowers Getting Neutralized: Green walked to the cage accompanied by “euphoria” by Kendrick Lamar, made famous as the diss track against Drake. He is the first fighter in the UFC to use any of Lamar’s recently released diss tracks as walkout music.

Crazy Like a Fool: Selecting “Daddy Cool” by Boney M. as his entrance tune, Crosbie became the second fighter to choose a song from the German disco group. He joins Pannie Kianzad, who used the same song at UFC Fight Night 163 in 2019.