Leon Edwards has had enough of all the Belal Muhammad talk.
The former welterweight champion appeared in front of the press on Thursday to discuss his UFC London headliner against Sean Brady this weekend. It’s the first time Edwards steps into the Octagon since he lost the title to current champion Muhammad, in the most underwhelming performance of his career.
The American-Palestinian champ has continued to verbally berate Edwards in the months since that July bout, and has tipped Brady to wipe the floor with the Birmingham native.
Edwards, on the other hand, is less concerned with rising to Muhammad’s antics and is instead focused on reclaiming the belt, eager to let his fighting do the talking.
That didn’t stop Edwards from being barraged with questions on his perceived “rival”, however.
It started with their spat on social media, where Muhammad branded Edwards as “full of excuses”. Edwards responded by saying trash-talk from another fighter was irrelevant when preparing for the challenge at hand.
“Sean hasn’t done much talking for this fight, and I feel like Belal is only chatting s***, so I feel like everyone's talking about Belal,” he said. “But for me and my coaches, I'm not training thinking of what Belal’s doing or tweeting.”
But it didn’t stop there. Question after question rolled in as one reporter after another asked about the same topic, with one prefacing his question with: “ You've talked passionately about Belal today.”
Here, Edwards’s patience finally snapped. He hit back: “I’m not talking about Belal! You keep asking me about Belal. Oh, God.” Reporters chuckled as Edwards laughed it off, but it was clear his outburst was no joke.
“Rocky” intends get back in the win column this weekend in a fight that could determine whether he ever competes for gold again; Edwards previously stated he’s been assured of a title shot should he win on Saturday.
This drew the ire of Brady, who blasted Edwards for overlooking the obstacle in front of him and vowed to viciously punish the home fighter in the cage.
Edwards has denied that he’s overlooking Brady, but has questioned his opponent’s ambition if the title isn’t in the back of his mind.
“I’m focused on the job on Saturday night, but the long-term goal is to become a two-time world champion,” Edwards said. “If he ain’t got that dream in his head either, then that’s him. For me, I always put my main goal first, which is the championship, then I always work towards it.
“There’s steps in the way there that you’ve got to get past, that’s just as important as the title. But the title is the main goal, right? You’ve got to chip away, fight by fight, you’ve got to win fights.
“It's just as important, if not more important to get me to my main goal, where I feel I belong, which is a world champion. That's my mentality. I’m not looking past him. I’m just saying my main goal is to get back to where I left off. I need the guy that’s in the way and that’s it.”
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