Issue 175
January 2019
2018 has been a great year for Leon Edwards and now on a six-fight win streak, the British Welterweight is closing in on his shot at the title. 2019 is shaping up to be a special year.
The 27-year-old Leon Edwards extended his winning streak to six with two convincing wins in the 2018 calendar year. He followed up a unanimous decision victory over Peter Sobotta at UFC London last March with the biggest win of his career, defeating Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC Singapore in June.
Currently placed in the top 15 of the UFC welterweight rankings, Edwards knows he’s just one or two more wins away from getting himself into the 170 lbs title picture.
“2018 has been a great year for me and I’ve gone undefeated,” reflects Edwards in an exclusive interview with Fighters Only. But the Jamaican-born fighter who has grown up in inner-city Birmingham is hungry for more.
“I would’ve loved to have got another one or two fights in, but when I look back at what I achieved I’m happy with it,” he reflects on a year that seen him put down a marker in the UFC. “Headlining my first card was a big deal for me and getting a win in the fashion I did over someone like Donald Cerrone was a massive thing. 2018 has been good, but 2019 is going to be better.”
In an ideal world, Edwards would have liked to have built on the momentum he had following his victory in Singapore and fought again before the end of the year. Unfortunately, a lingering injury ruled him out of action until 2019, though for a small period of time he was willing to fight through the pain barrier to get a fight with another big name in the welterweight division.
“My lower back is playing up a bit and it’s causing some pain in my legs,” Edwards admits ruefully. “I had it before when I fought Albert Tumenov and it was mid-camp when it all started. I couldn’t really train so the last three or four weeks of that camp I was training for two days, then having three days o . This time, it started about a month ago and it’s been a real pain ever since.
“I was willing to fight in December though,” Edwards continues. “That was the plan and I was pushing for a fight with Jorge Masvidal. Basically, it ended up that I couldn’t take the fight. It was never officially offered, but we went back and forth a little bit with his team.
“At first Masvidal’s team said they didn’t want it. Then the week I got injured they said they did want it, so I said ‘f*** it, I’ll do it.’ By the time we went back to them, they said they’d been offered a fight with Nate Diaz and that they didn’t want it. That’s the last I heard about that.”
With the fight with Masvidal off the table in December, Edwards is now focusing on rehabbing his injuries and getting ready to return next year. The UFC recently announced their Q1 schedule and one fight card in particular has caught Edwards’ eye.
“I want to headline that UFC London card in March,” Edwards admits, excited at the prospect. “Fighting in London is just amazing.
I love fighting at home. Of course, part of me wishes they would do a Birmingham UFC, that’s my dream. But London is going to be great and I’ll do anything to be on it.
“Being in front of the English fans is always special and the traveling costs are minimal,” he continues. “Fighting in England means I don’t have to pay for all my teammates to fly over to where we go. It’s always good and I’ve never lost in the UK.”
Edwards has never been shy to call out the big names in the division and Darren Till is a man he’s frequently asked to fight. A showdown between the Brits has been talked about for a while now, but with the Liverpudlian going on to challenge for the title earlier this year, the fight never came together. With Till now coming o a loss but still ranked higher than Edwards, the man from Birmingham believes now is the right time for the two to go toe-to-toe and that there’d be no better place to do it than in the English capital.
“I’d love to fight Darren Till in the main event in a ‘Battle of Britain,’” Edwards states. “That’s the fight that should be headlining that card and I think it makes a lot of sense for us both. I’ll fight Masvidal as well, but it’s the Till fight that I think everyone would appreciate the most.
“I’ve got no issue with Darren or anything like that. I just know that I’m the best welterweight fighter in the UK and I think it would be right for us to put that on the line in front of the UK fans in March,” he continues. “Out of the two of us I think I’ve got the best resume and I’m currently on a big win streak.”
Headlining his first ever UFC fight card in Singapore earlier this year was a big moment for Edwards, but topping the bill in his own home country would mean more than anything to the Team Renegade man. With other UK-based fighters being given main events on home soil in the past few years, Edwards believes he’s earned the right to have his name in the headline spot.
“It’s my time to headline a show in the UK,” Edwards argues. “Darren got his show in Liverpool, Jimi [Manuwa] has headlined UFC London a bunch of times, and Michael Bisping is retired now. I feel this should be my headline card in the UK.
“I’ve done enough to deserve it in my mind,” he continues. “No one in the UK has a win streak like mine at the moment and none of them has beaten a big name like Cerrone in their last fight. It has to be me.”
Riding high on a six-fight win streak and with a team of highly skilled coaches and teammates by his side, Edwards believes that now is the time for him to make a run at the title. Gyms like SBG Manchester, Team Kaobon, London Shootfighters, and Team Titan may beg to differ, but Edwards believes that he’s training at the best facility in the UK at Team Renegade in Birmingham.
“Everything at Renegade is perfect now and I couldn’t ask for a better place to train,” says Edwards. “We now have the mats, the cage and all the best equipment. Joe Du y is training with us now, we have Tom Breese, my brother Fabian and everyone else. As far as gyms go in the UK I think it’s the best in the country. I can’t think of a better one.
“Back in the day you had like Roughhouse and other little gyms,” Edwards continues. “There’s no other gym right now in the UK that has UFC fighters, Bellator fighters, and bodies of all sizes. I seriously can’t ask for more and I think it’s going to spur me on to the belt.”
With a successful 2018 campaign now in the books, Edwards is looking forward to taking more big steps forward next year. Kickstarting 2019 in March with a win at UFC London is the immediate plan but by the end of the year, Edwards is looking to get a shot at UFC gold.
“I’m going out there to get myself a title shot next year,” Edwards promises. “I’m on a six-fight win streak so a few more and I’ll have to be in the title talk. If I fight at UFC London in March, then again in June or July, I think I can then get a title shot in November or December.
“If I put together an eight-fight win streak they can’t deny me my shot,” he continues. “I don’t talk s*** like other people do, but if I keep winning, the title fight will come.”
Edwards knows that winning the UFC welterweight title will springboard him onto achieving another big goal he has. Bringing the UFC back to Birmingham for the first time since 2011 would be a dream come true and he believes that if he wins the title, it would make sense for the UFC to come back to his hometown.
“Yeah I’ve talked to Sean Shelby about it before but he says he’s got nothing to do with it,” Edwards says. “I’ve been mentioning it to them and I hope next year could be the one. If I keep winning, get the title or even get a title shot, that could be what finally brings them back.
“We have two local fighters here already and there’s no reason why people like my brother couldn’t step up and fight on the card too,” Edwards continues. “I think UFC London is going to be great, but UFC Birmingham would be something totally different. Win the belt and bring the UFC home. That’s what I’m focused on.”
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