Leon Edwards stunned the entire world as he knocked Usman out with a vicious leg kick in the fifth round of the main event fight at UFC 278. Rocky avenged his loss in their first meeting against Usman in this rematch and handed The Nigerian Nightmare his first UFC loss.
With this win, Edwards became the new undisputed welterweight champion and to commemorate his brilliant knockout win, The British fighter did the iconic Billi Strut of former two-division champion Conor McGregor.
The moment @Leon_edwardsmma became world champion 🤩#UFC278 pic.twitter.com/AiKAPrL9hx
— #UFC278 on BT Sport (@btsportufc) August 21, 2022
Leon was filled with emotions following his win as he battled past many difficulties and earned this glory. As soon as he landed the leg kick and slept Usman, Rocky jumped outside the cage to celebrate his win. Thereafter Edwards came back inside the octagon and hit the Billi strut and walked around.
Rocky mimicking Conor shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as he imitated the Irishman’s famous phrase “We’re gonna wrestle, let’s wrestle.” while engaging in a verbal banter with Kamaru Usman in the pre-fight press conference.
Celebrate fight night the proper way and grab a bottle of @properwhiskey. Comment your #ProperPredictions #ProperPartner pic.twitter.com/311WMdx8W1
— Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards (@Leon_edwardsmma) August 20, 2022
Moreover, Edwards is managed by the same company as The Notorious called Paradigm Sports and the Brit has also teamed up with Conor’s whiskey company Proper Twelve and he made this announcement a few days ago on Twitter.
Conor McGregor congratulates Leon Edwards for his insane knockout win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278
As mentioned earlier, both Conor McGregor and Leon Edwards are managed by Paradigm Sports and consequently, the Irishman was supporting Rocky in this title fight. Following Leon’s brilliant win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278, The Notorious congratulated the British welterweight for becoming the new champion.
Just like that baby, what a game! Huge congrats @ParadigmSports and Leon Edwards! ANOTHER CHAMPION!
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) August 21, 2022
An amazing scene to witness! Huge congrats Leon! A real good, solid and dedicated mixed martial artist! The uk’s second only ufc champion! Incredible! Congrats mate! @ParadigmSports
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) August 21, 2022
He also shared his thoughts on Leon’s performance and explained the entire sequence of Edwards knocking out Usman on Twitter.
Not even a relatively high kick. Fully leaned into his own death. One leaned his way to victory. Another leaned his way to death. Crazy sport, I love! pic.twitter.com/oygJvBcoeH
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) August 21, 2022
As of now both Conor McGregor and Leon Edwards share mutual respect. However, with The Notorious interested in competing for the welterweight title, we could see these two fighters clashing heads for the gold in the future.
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