Alice Ardelean

On July 27, 2024, a notable milestone took place in the world of mixed martial arts when UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad 2 was held at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England. This marked the fifth time the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chose to host an event in Manchester, the first instance since UFC 204 in October 2016. However, it sparked controversy as despite being held in Manchester, the scheduling was based on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT, UTC-7) from Las Vegas.

Starting times for the fights became a point of contention among fans and fighters. Preliminary fights began at 23.00 British Summer Time (15.00 PDT), and the main card at 03.00 BST – aligning with the typical UFC pay-per-view event start time of 19.00 PDT. Many UK viewers understandably felt that a more sensible start time would have been 19.00 BST or 11.00 PDT.

The headline act of the evening was the UFC Welterweight Championship bout between the defending champion Leon Edwards and challenger Belal Muhammad. This was the second encounter between the two fighters. They had faced each other earlier in UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs. Muhammad in March 2021, where the match was declared a no contest following an accidental eye poke rendering Muhammad unable to continue.

A heavyweight bout between Tom Aspinall, the title holder, and Curtis Blaydes co-headlined the event. This was a rematch from July 2022 where Blaydes had triumphed after Aspinall succumbed to a knee injury just fifteen seconds into the fight, subsequently sidelining him for a year.

A middleweight bout was also scheduled to take place between Christian Leroy Duncan and Robert Bryczek. However, Bryczek had to withdraw for undisclosed reasons. Taking his place was former LFA Middleweight Champion, Gregory Rodrigues.

The women’s strawweight bout initially touted Ravena Oliveira against Shauna Bannon, however, due to an injury suffered by Oliveira, the UFC brought in promotional newcomer Alice Ardelean as a replacement.

Ramon Taveras and Caolán Loughran were set to square off in a bantamweight bout, but an injury to Taveras resulted in his removal from the fight card. Reportedly, Hecher Sosa was his replacement, but this match-up was also cancelled. Therefore, Loughran ended up fighting Jake Hadley instead. Unfortunately, during the weigh-ins, Hadley was 137 pounds, half a pound over the bantamweight non-title fight limit. So, the bout was held at catchweight, with Hadley losing 20 percent of his purse to Loughran.

Each event typically features $50,000 fight night bonuses. Intriguingly before the commencement of UFC 304, these bonuses were raised to $100,000.