On July 27, 2024, UFC headed to Manchester, England, with UFC 304. The time the event ran (in the UK it was 3 am for the title fight) was subject to a little controversy. However, let’s put that part to one side for a second. Let’s look at what happened at the event, match by match.
We’ll mainly look at the main card here. However, we do want to dip into a few of the matches on the undercard, just because we think there are some up-and-coming UFC fighters there.
Arnold Allen v Giga Chikadze
The main card kicked off with a fight between English fighter Arnold Allen and Georgian Giga Chikadze. It is clear that the UFC wanted to get that arena pumping, so this match was pretty much guaranteed to be an Arnold Allen win. He went into the event as a clear favorite. You could deposit with any payment method into your account, have a flutter on Arnold Allen, and have a decent chance of winning your bet. However, we were surprised that this three-rounder went to a decision (unanimous) rather than Arnold clearing the matchup early.
What struck us was how many strikes Allen could get in during the third round. He doesn’t tire easily. His total strikes in the third round were around three times higher than the previous two. It is not like his opponent was tiring out either. Chikadze didn’t falter on his strike count throughout the match. This shows us that Allen is a good long-haul fighter, and that may serve him well when it comes to five-rounders, which he will almost certainly be getting soon.
Christian Leroy Duncan v Gregory Rodrigues
The next main card match seemed to be pretty even on the betting odds front. However, Rodrigues won by split decision. Duncan was struggling in the first round, managing to get just nine strikes in (although, he recovered in rounds two and three). However, it was no match for the barrage of strikes that Rodrigues was launching at him as the round went on, not to mention a whopping four successful takedowns. The judges had no choice but to call Rodrigues the winner of this middleweight bout.
King Green v Paddy Pimblett
This lightweight match-up seemed to be fairly even going in. However, Paddy Pimblett (from England) put on the match of his life. He wrapped the whole thing up in 3:22 with a submission. It wasn’t like King Green wasn’t able to put up a fight either. The strikes were pretty even, and he managed a successful takedown. He just couldn’t stand it once Pimblett got him into that submission hold, and he had no choice but to call it a night.
UFC declared Paddy Pimblett one of the top performers of the night. We wouldn’t be surprised if he moved up the card a little bit for the next events.
Tom Aspinall v Curtis Blaydes
By this point, the English in the arena were in pretty high spirits. They’d seen some great English wins and the Heavyweight Interim Title Bout was now happening, and Tom Aspinall was hoping to clinch it.
Honestly, looking at the odds, Curtis Blaydes stood no chance of winning this match. No chance. However, we expected him to go on a bit longer. While the bout was scheduled for five rounds, Aspinall was able to wrap it up in a minute with a TKO. Blaydes was barely able to get a punch in.
Leon Edwards v Belal Muhammad
With the heavyweight title bout over, it was time to head into the final match of the evening—Leon Edwards v Belal Muhammad for the welterweight title belt.
Leon Edwards probably went into this bout exceedingly comfortable with his position. The bookies had him as a clear favorite for the event. However, he just didn’t perform, and the fight was even criticized by Dana White. Belal Muhammad won by a unanimous decision from the judges.
Edwards just couldn’t handle the number of strikes being launched at him (Muhammad scored almost three times as many), and he wasn’t doing too well with those takedowns either. While he had a 100% hit rate with the takedowns, he only managed two. Muhammad scored a whopping nine.
Is this it for Edwards? Probably not. It wasn’t his day. However, many are now predicting Muhammad to put on a couple of decent fights in the hope of retaining his welterweight title.
Molly McCann v Bruna Brasil (Preliminary)
The main card for UFC 304 was severely lacking in female competition. Luckily, there were a few matches on the undercard. Molly McCann and Bruna Brasil, a strawweight bout, was probably the best of them and was tipped beforehand as one of the best prelim fights to watch.
Brasil took the three rounds by unanimous decision, and she was the clear favorite going in. However, McCann put on a decent fight, with her strike counts not too far behind Brasil. She also managed to score two takedowns, out of seven attempts (although, Brasil was 3/3).
It was a solid bout throughout, and while McCann was not able to win, she put up a decent challenge until the very end. It was probably a solid reversal from Brasil that took that bout for her. We expect to see some big things for both fighters in the future, even if neither is heading to the main card any time soon.
Mark Parkin v Lukasz Brzeski (Preliminary)
This heavyweight bout could easily be on the main card in a few years. We certainly expect Parkin to be there. Despite being a preliminary event, he was able to walk away with a Performance of the Night award. This was all thanks to his domination in the oval. He wrapped everything up in 3:23, with a rather sweet KO. Polish man Brezeski was able to get a few strikes in there, but it was the final punch that took the title from him.
Shauna Bannon v Alice Ardelean (Preliminary)
It was the first bout of the night that seemed to be the hardest to call for the judges, with Bannon walking away the winner thanks to a split decision. Bannon’s strikes were on point throughout the match, with a solid 151 across all three rounds versus Ardelean’s 80. She was struggling with the takedowns, though. She wasn’t able to get any of her two attempts while Ardelean hit 50% (two out of four).
Bannon is just a menace when it comes to the headshots, though. She knows how to target her strikes, and we think that is how she managed to win by split.
Both women have potential for the future, although we probably won’t see them competing at another PPV any time soon. However, from what we saw, both could probably challenge for the strawweight division title shortly. They’ll just need to get a bit more training under their belts first.
Of course, there were other fights throughout the night. These were the main highlights, though. It wasn’t the best night of UFC fighting action ever, but the English fighters put in a good performance, so the crowd went home happy. That’s probably all the UFC wanted—to entertain (and probably make a ton of cash).
