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Evening Standard

Sport

George Flood

When is UFC 304? Date, start times, fight card, how to watch and latest odds for Manchester event

UFC Tom Aspinall Leon Edwards Molly McCann Paddy Pimblett Manchester UFC 304 Belal Muhammad Jon Jones Muhammad Mokaev

UFC 304 takes place in Manchester this weekend as the world’s leading mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion returns to the UK once again.

A star-studded bill is headlined by Birmingham’s Leon Edwards, who makes the third defence of his UFC welterweight title against the no2-ranked Belal Muhammad in the main event.

‘Rocky’ followed Michael Bisping as only the second-ever British UFC champion after a stunning knockout of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 in the summer of 2022, later defeating ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ again on home soil in London at UFC 286 last March before outpointing Colby Covington on his last appearance at UFC 296 in Las Vegas in December.

Now Edwards - riding a 13-fight unbeaten streak dating back to after his first meeting with Usman in 2015 and currently ranked at No4 on the UFC’s pound-for-pound list, behind only Islam Makhachev, Alex Pereira and Jon Jones - faces a rematch with Muhammad, whom he previously faced on his long-awaited return to the octagon in March 2021, with that bout ending in a no contest after the American was left bloodied by an accidental eye poke.

Muhammad has racked up five consecutive wins since that disappointing end to his UFC main event debut, outpointing all of Demian Maia, Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson, Vicente Luque and Gilbert Burns, as well as knocking out Sean Brady.

There is plenty of other British interest on Saturday night’s card, with interim heavyweight title-holder Tom Aspinall facing Curtis Blaydes in another high-profile rematch.

A horror knee injury suffered just 15 seconds into their first bout in London two summers ago saw the Salford star ruled out for a year, but he returned to stop Marcin Tybura before picking up the interim belt with a superb first-round knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in New York in November.

Homegrown stars: Paddy Pimblett, Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall are all fighting at UFC 304 in Manchester (Getty Images)

Such a golden opportunity only came after an injury to Jon Jones forced the heavyweight champion to withdraw from his scheduled defence against Stipe Miocic. Jones and Miocic are expected to finally meet in November, with, according to UFC president Dana White, the winner of that fight taking on the winner of Aspinall vs Blaydes, the latter of whom lost to Pavlovich before knocking out Jailton Almeida at UFC 299 in March.

Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett is also on this weekend’s main card, taking part in his sixth UFC fight against Bobby ‘King’ Green, looking to build on his career-best win over the legendary Tony Ferguson at UFC 296 that came after his highly-contentious win over Jared Gordon.

Pimblett’s fellow Liverpool star ‘Meatball’ Molly McCann is in action against Bruna Brasil, having bounced back from consecutive defeats by Erin Blanchfield and Julija Stoliarenko to swiftly submit Diana Belbita on her strawweight debut back in February.

Christian Leroy Duncan, Arnold Allen, Nathaniel Wood, Jake Hadley, Modestas Bukauskas, Oban Elliott, Muhammad Mokaev, Sam Patterson and Mick Parkin are among the other British stars on the card hoping to impress on home soil.

When is UFC 304?

UFC 304 takes place on Saturday July 27, 2024.

Where is UFC 304?

The event takes place at the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester, England.

What time is UFC 304?

Despite being held in the UK, the event will be at a similar time to cards in the US, much to the annoyance of fight fans on these shores, with the early prelim fights not due to start until 11pm BST.

The prelims will not commence until 1am BST in the early hours of Sunday morning, with the main card getting underway at 3am.

The main event is not expected to begin until approximately 4:30am.