Leon Edwards’ coach blames Belal Muhammad defeat on 5am fight time

UFC star Leon Edwards’ coach has once again questioned the 5am start time from his defeat to Belal Muhammad last year.

As we know, in his most recent fight, Leon Edwards lost the UFC welterweight championship. After beating Kamaru Usman for the belt before successfully defending it twice, ‘Rocky’ fell short against Belal Muhammad in London. Now, this year, he’ll fight in the English capital once again when he locks horns with Sean Brady on Saturday night.

RELATED: Video: Belal Muhammad leaves hilarious happy birthday message for Leon Edwards fan

One of the factors behind his loss, in the eyes of Edwards, was the fact he had to compete at 5am as the UFC refused to air the London card at a normal local time.

Now, Edwards’ coach has given his thoughts on that particular topic.

Edwards’ coach speaks out

“There were some major factors leading up to the fight, forget the minor injury apart,” Lovell said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”. “In England, when have you ever heard of a sportsman performing 6 o’clock in the morning? It’s never been heard of before, and no doubt you’ll never hear of it again.

“It was just a freaky moment in time, and Leon had to deal with it. To lose to Belal in the fashion he lost to him, the world knows he’s a lot better than that. We know. Most and foremost, he knows he’s better than that. Yeah, it was a major setback, but we’re on the road back to gold. What more can I say to that?”

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but I take nothing from Belal,” Lovell said. “He won, he waited his time like Leon did, so let him make the most of it. Fair play to him, but it’s a bitter pill for me to swallow for the simple fact of how Leon lost it, the lackluster effort for whatever reason because we all know that was, what, 30, 35, 40 percent of Leon Edwards that night?”

Quotes via MMA Junkie