Losing the Title

Not long ago, Leon Edwards ruled the welterweight division.  He had finally ended Kamaru Usman’s legendary reign in sensational fashion.  After winning the trilogy against Usman and dominating Colby Covington, Edwards looked to continue his reign.  His next fight would be against Belal Muhammad, a fight many felt confident he would win.  The two had briefly met in a previous fight, where Edwards had the upper hand.  To everyone’s surprise, however, Belal bested Edwards in a resounding unanimous decision.  In the aftermath, Edwards attributed his performance to the time-zone shift, and vowed to return stronger.

Image – Sherdog

Loss to Brady

Edwards had a solid opportunity to bounce back against Sean Brady.  Brady’s only loss was to Belal, and had just defeated Gilbert Burns in impressive fashion.  The fight, however, did not go as planned for Edwards.  Despite landing some good strikes early, Brady landed good punches of his own.  A red flag, however, appeared when Brady took Edwards down towards the end of the first round.  Brady followed this up by taking Edwards down and controlling him for much of the second round.  With a potential repeat of the Belal fight looming, Edwards chose to shoot his own takedown.  This proved to be a costly mistake, allowing Brady to reverse and control Edwards once again.  Round by round, Brady used his world-class positional awareness to keep Edwards down.  This sequence ultimately set the stage for Brady to submit Edwards in round 4, marking Leon’s first ever stoppage loss.

     Image – BBC

Doubts

Edwards’s loss forces us to ask the dreaded question: whether he still has “it.”  The backlash has already started.  The community has pointed toward his dejected body language throughout the fight, questioning his mental toughness.  Many also questioned his ill-fated takedown attempt in the third round.  His takedown defense still left much to be desired, which plagued him in the Belal fight as well.  People have pointed out that Edwards has shown these weaknesses at times throughout his career.  After all, he displayed similar tendencies in his second Kamaru Usman fight, right up until the head kick.  Many people thus feel that his title reign was more a result of circumstance than Edwards’ dominance.

Changing of the Guard

But even with his recent losses, we cannot ignore Edwards’s performance in the third Usman fight or the Covington fight.  One might point to extenuating circumstances.  Many felt that Usman looked tentative after his knockout loss.  People largely criticized Covington in his lackluster title effort as well.  But we cannot discount the fact that Belal Muhammad and Sean Brady are both riding immense momentum.  Many people have tried to take Edwards down before.  Belal and Sean both enjoyed success in large part due to their striking improvements.  Belal and Sean both used skillful footwork and distance management to hit Leon with clean strikes.  Edwards thus had much more difficulty defending against their takedown attempts.                                   

                                                                                                                                                                   Image – MMA Fighting

What Next?

Edwards’s road back to the title now looks slim, if not nonexistent.  The new crop of welterweight contenders are clamoring for a title shot.  With Leon now firmly out of the mix, one interesting fight could be a grudge match against Jorge Masvidal.  While Masvidal has expressed interest in a UFC return, it would be a large step down in competition.  It would be a refreshing stylistic matchup against a fellow striker for Leon, and the two of course have history.  Settling the score against the original “BMF” may be what Leon needs to regain his mojo.

                                                                                                                Image – Yahoo Sports