Leon Edwards is back in the role he’s become all too familiar with in the UFC.
“Rocky” returns to home turf as the headline attraction for UFC London this weekend, hoping to bounce back from welterweight title despair last summer. Taking on Sean Brady after original opponent Jack Della Maddalena was fast-tracked to a championship bout, Edwards desperately needs his arm raised by Saturday’s end.
Yet despite having only just lost his belt, Edwards is once again out of favour with the bookies. Against a man who took the fight on short notice, Edwards is tipped at 5/4 to claim victory, while American grappler Brady is 8/13. This isn’t a new occurrence for the British-Jamaican, who has spent his career disproving critics who claim he’s already shot as high as he can.
It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t all that long ago when Edwards was on top of the world. A knockout-of-the-year, pulled from the depths of his being, against one of the division’s all-time greats in Kamaru Usman, to become champion of the world. That was his story, written when he looked down and out. “Headshot, dead.”
A successful defence against Usman – who lest we forget looked impenetrable as champion for a few years – followed before Edwards dismantled long-time contender Colby Covington over five rounds in his next outing. The Birmingham fighter looked here to stay. But in the fragile world of combat sports, it doesn’t take long for things to fall apart.
Edwards’s next challenge proved detrimental to his stock. Belal Muhammad, a man he’d pieced up in 2021 before an inadvertent eye-poke halted proceedings, stepped into the cage to snatch his belt. As dawn broke in the main event of a Manchester card that bewilderingly kicked off on US time, Muhammad made light work of champion Edwards – who entered the bout, for once, as a heavy favourite.
With the weight of expectation on him, a sleep-scrambled Edwards produced the most underwhelming performance of his career, as his usually pinpoint striking failed to neutralise Muhammad’s grappling. Now, as he faces another grappler in Brady, many fans, experts and oddsmakers predict a repeat.
This sentiment, for Edwards, may not be a bad thing – it could even be a secret weapon. The 33-year-old wouldn’t have reached this point if he didn’t have a thick skin. It took a 10-fight, six-year winning streak for him to finally be recognised as title material. He then took that streak to 13 in a respectable reign.
Brady poses a challenge that Edwards has struggled with before. It’s a style far different to the one that Della Maddalena would have brought. Nevertheless, Edwards is not bothered by the odds and is ready to prove his doubters wrong again as he prepares to write the latest chapter in his ultimate underdog story.
“It doesn't really bother me,” he said. “I've been underdog in many fights, and before the last fight I hadn’t lost in almost 10 years. Odds mean nothing. I’ve proven time and time again that I’m one of the best in the division.”
History has taught us that, per his nickname, Rocky rises to the occasion when he’s written off. He is a round-five specialist – case in point, Usman in 2022. Against a man that at the time had Georges St-Pierre’s divisional GOAT status in his sights, not many gave Edwards a chance before the fight began. After four rounds, not even your most ambitious punter would have put money on an Edwards win.
Yet, despite looking like a broken man during what could have easily been his only ever shot at gold, Edwards produced a head kick heard around the world and proved his powers of recovery knew no bounds. Even against Muhammad, round five was where Edwards finally came alive. Up against Muhammad’s superb defence, it wasn’t enough, but it demonstrated again that even when he loses, Edwards does not go down without a fight.
Despite this never-say-die attitude in the cage, Edwards needs results to get back in favour with the UFC brass. Because it’s not just the bookies who don’t seem too keen on the fighter.
Immediate title rematches aren’t an automatic right in the UFC, but they’re not uncommon. When it came to Edwards and Muhammad, UFC president Dana White didn’t appear particularly interested in running it back – but after Shavkat Rakhmonov, the champion’s next intended opponent, sustained an injury, Muhammad needed a new foe.
Edwards seemed the obvious candidate. Instead, it was his initial UFC London opponent “JDM” who got the nod. Edwards insists this was due to the UFC’s latest British card being built around him as the home hero. However, given his past struggles to win over the American fandom, it would be naive not to consider ‘draw’ as a factor in White’s decision.
Snubbed or not, this leaves the door open for Edwards to do what he does best. He’s fighting a BJJ specialist whose style targets his weaknesses far more than would have been the case against JDM. Brady is no lay-up for Edwards, and with victories against Gilbert Burns and Kelvin Gastelum, the American has some impressive scalps to his name.
It’s a difficult fight and one that not even Edwards’s most ardent fans can confidently call in his favour. But he’s been in unfavourable positions many a time, and he knows how to thrive in them.
There is one critical factor that goes in Edwards’s favour, though. He’s back on his time – on home soil and not fighting at 6am. That’s one key difference from the Muhammad loss, while the ex-champion has also added a new grappling coach to his team. Now we wait to see if those elements will be enough, in a fight that could determine whether he ever fights for a title again.
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