Leon Edwards Reflects on Long Road to Becoming UFC Champion

It was a long journey for Leon Edwards to become UFC champion, but the payoff was well worth it.

Edwards claimed welterweight gold with a head kick knockout of Kamaru Usman in the UFC 278 main event at Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. The end came 4:04 into Round 5, one of the latest finishes for a championship fight in promotion history. Moments earlier, Edwards appeared to be on his way to losing a clear-cut unanimous decision. In the aftermath, “Rocky” admitted that the Utah altitude may have gotten to him.

“Going into it, I knew it was going to be a tough fight. I said it all week. But I believe I was the better man – but even though it was one my worst performances, it is what it is, I got a clean finish,” Edwards said at the UFC 278 post-fight press conference. “My body just wasn’t reacting the way it was meant to react. I don’t know if it was the altitude or not, but when I was backstage watching the other guys fight on TV, everyone was getting tired and gassing out. I was like, ‘Why is everyone getting tired?’ When I went out there after the first round I felt it. My body just wasn’t reacting.”

To his credit, Edwards stayed in the fight until the very end. He became the first person to land a takedown on Usman in UFC competition in Round 1, but “The Nigerian Nightmare” recovered to impose his will from there, right up until the head kick rendered him unconscious. Edwards’ ability to keep pushing despite his struggles allowed him to find the opening he needed.

“It wasn’t a cardio issue, it was just like my body wasn’t reacting,” he said. “But I stayed focused, my coaches spurred me on and kept reminding me, ‘You’re still in the fight, you are the best, and fight until the end.’ That combination I was drilling with my coaches, that left-cross head kick, and it landed perfectly.”

Edwards believes his story as a champion from the United Kingdom can inspire other fighters from the region.

“This has never been done before, to have a guy from Birmingham, in the U.K. Did it from the U.K. I know Bisping did it first, but he did it from America,” Edwards said. “So it was hard for people like me to relate and say we can do it as well. I made a point to stay in the U.K. to achieve this and to show all the guys coming under me that look if you believe in your country, believe in your team, you can achieve it.

“That’s what I did. I went out there and I achieved it, from a little small gym in Birmingham. It’s a crazy story. Everybody knows my story, from being born in Jamaica to now winning a UFC world title is a nice story.”

Edwards’ path to becoming UFC champion was arduous, and that goes all the way back to his formative years.

“My path was rough. I know it. I felt it. Even though I put on a toughness, I felt the pressure, I felt the doubt, I felt all of them saying it can’t be done. But I am from the trenches,” he said.

“I was born with nothing. We had to claw our way up and immigrate to the U.K. to make a better life for ourselves. I was able to change my life by getting in the UFC. My mom signed me up to an MMA gym at the age of 17 to keep me out of trouble, and I used it to change our family’s future. I am proud of myself. I’m proud of everything I have achieved.”

Now that he has reached the mountaintop, Edwards realizes he likely has unfinished business with Usman.

“I knew going into it that more than likely we were going to have a rematch down the line,” Edwards said. “Whether it’s next or down the line, we’re going to have a rematch. He’s been a long champion, they’re saying he’s the pound-for-pound best all week. He was saying that he was the pound-for-pound best. He believed it, and as I said in the Octagon, the belt doesn’t belong to nobody. It doesn’t belong to me or nobody. No man is meant to hold the belt for that long, and I said it all week that I felt like this was my moment. This is how it was meant to play out. All the layoff, all the COVID, that’s how it was meant to play out.”