Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman meet in their highly anticipated trilogy bout at the O2 Arena on Saturday at UFC 286. The rivals first met in the octagon nearly 8 years ago when both of them were prospects in the UFC’s welterweight division. Kamaru dominated proceedings, winning 29-28 on 2 judges’ scorecards while one gave all 3 rounds to him.
The second time around, Kamaru was the dominant UFC welterweight champion, and Leon was the plucky underdog challenger. Despite the Nigerian Nightmare dominating most of the fight, “Rocky” with less than a minute left in the fight knocked out Kamaru with a perfectly executed head kick to become the UFC welterweight champ.
Last August @Leon_EdwardsMMA snatched victory from the jaws of defeat 🏆
— UFC (@ufc) March 16, 2023
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With both of their previous encounters ending in dramatically different manners, there is no telling how their second matchup will go. And what may influence their 3rd fight are the obvious physical differences between the two. For starters, at 6’2” (188cm), Leon is taller than his welterweight rival. However, it is Kamaru who holds the reach advantage over Edwards despite being 2 inches shorter.
But this height difference has the ability to affect grappling exchanges much like weight can. In the second fight, we saw how easily Leon was able to get the underhooks in when Kamaru had him against the cage. That sequence ended with Usman getting taken down for the first time. And their third fight may see more of this as Leon will be much more confident as the champion.
An area in which the defending champion is at a disadvantage is weight. Now that may seem confusing at first glance given both of them fight at 170. However, Kamaru Usman cuts a lot of weight in order to make the welterweight limit. Many analysts and insiders have speculated that Kamaru Usman weighs close to the UFC’s LHW limit when the cage doors close. This will help out Usman during the grappling exchanges on Saturday.
Kamaru Usman’s previous opponents were all smaller than Leon Edwards
Kamaru Usman has only fought the welterweight division’s elite in his last few fights. As the champion, he defended his title against Jorge Masvidal (twice), Gilbert Burns, and Colby Covington (twice). However, one thing all these men have in common is that none of them are the biggest welterweights around.
“In order to achieve greatness, there has to be hardship” – Kamaru Usman
— UFC (@ufc) March 15, 2023
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On the other hand, the reigning UFC welterweight champ, Leon Edwards is quite big for the division. Standing at 6’2″ with a reach equal to his height, he is the biggest opponent Kamaru Usman has faced in years. Only Jorge Masvidal had a reach that rivals Edwards’. Even so, he is still shorter than Leon. “Rocky” really is an outlier when it comes to being an opponent for Usman.
As mentioned above, height and weight differences between fighters can heavily influence a match’s outcome. But will the physical differences help one fighter prevail over the other at UFC 286? Let us know how you think the fight will play out.
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