UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards has a great resume. From Belal Muhammad to Nate Diaz to Kamaru Usman, Leon has fought who’s who in the welterweight division. But there is no doubt that the win over Usman at UFC 278 was the biggest achievement of his career. It made him the welterweight champ and turned him into a cult hero overnight.
After Michael Bisping, Leon became the only other UK fighter to win a UFC title. Edwards went from being a well-respected welterweight contender to an overnight superstar! His win over Kamaru also came in the most spectacular way possible. With just moments left in the fight, Leon landed his now-famous head kick and KO’ed Usman.
London we are BACK 🏆🇬🇧#UFC286 Fight Week is officially here!! pic.twitter.com/VcRiLtCtyz
— UFC (@ufc) March 13, 2023
He is now set to fight Usman once more in the rematch at UFC 286. In their previous two fights, both Kamaru and Leon held 1 win each. So the rubber match will no doubt be a huge occasion for both the fighters. But ahead of the match-up, Leon was posed with an interesting question regarding another top welterweight contender, Khamzat Chimaev.
Leon Edwards reveals the real reason why he did not fight Khamzat Chimaev
Leon Edwards had a long stretch of bad luck following his win against Rafael dos Anjos in July 2019. After that, Leon was finally set to return to England and headline a Fight Night event against the former champ Tyron Woodley. However, due to the worldwide pandemic situation, the event in March 2020 had to be canceled. It started a period of one and a half years of him being out of action.
But Tyron Woodley was not the only fighter that Leon Edwards was matched up against. In December 2020, Leon was booked to fight Khamzat Chimaev for the first time. At that point in time, Chimaev was coming off 3 straight wins in the UFC. After beating John Philips and Rhys McKee in a span of 10 days, Chimaev also KO’ed Gerald Meerschaert in 17 seconds!
So there was a lot of hype behind him and UFC wanted to push to the moon! Hence, they wanted to test Chimaev against Leon Edwards. But unfortunately, the bout did not happen on the first attempt as Leon was diagnosed with COVID-19. The second time around in January 2021, it was Chimaev who tested positive for the virus. Although it was rescheduled for a third time in March 2021, Chimaev could not recover in time for the bout.
Hence, both Chimaev and Leon moved on with their respective careers. In a recent interview with GQ, Leon Edwards was asked why he ultimately did not fight Khamzat. In answer, Leon highlighted his health issues at the time and revealed it was unsafe for him to fight Khamzat while he was not 100% fit.
Edwards added, “Yeah, for sure. I was meant to fight. I think it was Khamzat Chimaev, we were matched up and I started feeling really weak in camp and then one night it just hit me and I couldn’t eat, I’ve lost my taste. So I lost about 5-6 KGs. And obviously, you have to make weight for your fight but you also have to lose the weight healthily. So I had to like reschedule the fight.”
So Leon Edwards losing about 12 lbs was definitely not the ideal situation for him to accept another fight. However, the decision ultimately paid off as he is the reigning welterweight champ. With Khamzat teasing a return after Ramadan in April, he could very well be next in line for a title shot. Depending on the result at UFC 286 on March 18, “Rocky” may find himself matched up against “The Borz” once more.