All you need to know about UFC 304 in Manchester

Britons Leon Edwards and Tom Aspinall defend their UFC titles on home soil on Saturday, 27 July in Manchester.

UFC 304 is a stacked card, with Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann also in action.

The 23,000-seat Co-op Live arena hosts its first sporting event. However, the fight night is catering to a US audience, meaning the event will be overnight in the UK.

Just as Michael Bisping did in 2016, welterweight Edwards and heavyweight Aspinall will fight in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app will start at 04:00 BST on Sunday, 28 July.

UFC champion Edwards headlines against Belal Muhammad, while Aspinall defends his interim title against Curtis Blaydes.

What time is UFC Manchester?

Doors open at the Co-op Live arena at 22:00 in Manchester with the first fight expected at 23:00.

The preliminary card is from 01:00 and the main card will start at 03:00.

There are 14 fights in total and Edwards says he does not expect to compete before 05:00. That tracks with what Bisping experienced in his win over Dan Henderson eight years ago, emerging for his fight at 04:46 local time.

It means Aspinall v Blaydes should be before 04:30.

Who is on the UFC Manchester undercard?

Main card

Leon Edwards (c) v Belal Muhammad 2 – welterweight title bout (5x5min rounds)

Tom Aspinall (ic) v Curtis Blaydes 2 – heavyweight interim title bout (5x5min rounds)

Bobby Green v Paddy Pimblett – lightweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Christian Leroy Duncan v Robert Bryczek – middleweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Arnold Allen v Giga Chikadze – featherweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Preliminary card

Nathaniel Wood v Daniel Pineda - featherweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Molly McCann v Bruna Brasil – strawweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Caolan Loughran v Jake Hadley* - bantamweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Modestas Bukauskas v Marcin Prachnio - light-heavyweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Early preliminary card

Oban Elliott v Preston Parsons – welterweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Muhammad Mokaev v Manel Kape – flyweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Sam Patterson v Kiefer Crosbie - welterweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Mick Parkin v Lukasz Brzeski – heavyweight bout (3x5min rounds)

Shauna Bannon v Alice Ardelean - strawweight bout (3x5min rounds)

*Hadley missed weight by 1lb, forfeits 20% of purse to Loughran

How do Edwards v Muhammad and Aspinall v Blaydes records compare?

Edwards, 32, is arguably the best welterweight on the planet right now. The champion goes into his third defence of the title he won in 2022 and is on a 13-fight unbeaten streak.

The only slight blemish in that time is the March 2021 encounter with Muhammad, which ended in a no-contest because of an accidental eye-poke. It makes the main event a rematch - Muhammad has won five fights in a row since then.

Muhammad, 36, has considerable stamina with only two of his 17 UFC fights, not including the no-contest against Edwards, not going the distance.

Edwards is on a formidable unbeaten run while Aspinall is a knockout machine

Aspinall, 31, is in the unusual position of defending an interim title against a challenger rather than fighting for the undisputed title.

But as the MMA world waits for Jon Jones to recover from injury, Aspinall has a shot at revenge against American Blaydes.

Blaydes, 33, has a win over the Manchester fighter, but only because Aspinall suffered a terrible knee injury inside 15 seconds of their first encounter in July 2022.

Aspinall has secured two first-round knockouts since then, including his title triumph last November. He currently boasts eleven stoppages in 14 wins and just three defeats.

Blaydes' recent record has been hit-and-miss, losing to Sergei Pavlovich in his only fight in 2023 before stopping Jailton Almeida in March.

He has 18 wins, four losses and one no-contest in 23 fights.