Leon Edwards is ruining the division!

[OldBoy91]

It's weird that people continually blame Leon for his inactivity and not his opponents or the UFC.

"He sat out for 2 years during covid and waited for a title shot"

Reality- He accepted a fight with Woodley, a fight with Masvidal and 3 separate fights with Khamzat. All of them pulled out, and the only person that stepped up during that period was Nate Diaz.

"He won't defend his title, he only wants to fight once a year".

Reality- Won the belt in August 2022. Defended March 2023, 7 months later. This was to give Usman time to recover from a nasty KO and to make sure the event could take place in the UK. Since Dana announced on the night Leon win that they would do an immediate rematch in the UK.

Leon then said he wanted to defend in the summer, but they made him fight Colby, who dragged it out all the way until December. 9 months later.

Leon then said he wanted to get on the UFC 300 card in April and hopefully defend 3 times in 2024. The UFC tried to make this happen offering him 3 opponents for 300. Islam, Khamzat and Shavkat. Leon said yes to all of them, all 3 of them said no.

So now they are putting on a PPV in the UK they obviously want to hold Leon back for that. And it will be 7 months since he last fought.

Its kind of amazing and shows just how much of a popularity contest Sherdog is when Leon is hated and mocked for not fighting despite him saying yes to everybody. Yet guys like Shavkat and Khamzat are beloved here when they are the ones saying no when they are offered Leon.

 

[blaseblase]

I blame the UFC. Leon said he he was fighting on 300 but they pushed his fight back because they couldn't find an opponent other than Belal for him and they didn't want that fight on the card.

 

[El Fernas]

Dana loves to mention fighters that refuse fighting...Edwards hasnt been in that position, its probably not up to him 100%

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Izzy fights SOMEONE (anyone really)

I think if the UFC are actually going to Africa this year Izzy vs Dricus will happen and makes some sense. If you take Africa out of the equation I would like to see Izzy rematch Sean. They are both coming off of a loss in their last fight but the UFC has already booked Sean vs Costa so I suspect it will be Izzy vs DDP.

Not sure who aside from DDP or Sean would make sense to book against Izzy?

 

[RockyLockridge]

I think if the UFC are actually going to Africa this year Izzy vs Dricus will happen and makes some sense. If you take Africa out of the equation I would like to see Izzy rematch Sean. They are both coming off of a loss in their last fight but the UFC has already booked Sean vs Costa so I suspect it will be Izzy vs DDP.

Not sure who aside from DDP or Sean would make sense to book against Izzy?

Khamzat is fighting Whittaker
sean is fighting Costa
Izzy can fight Allen.

but what's going to happen is izzy is going to fight DDP, Vettori will fight Allen, and Im going to have to just deal with it.

 

[Pechan]

He has said yes to every fight offered.

 

[ArtardFiesta]

what si bullshit is he is waiting for the result of chandler vs connor. he wants to defend against the winner and then take on islam next

 

[Bork Neslar]

I agree. He's worst UFC "champ" ever. He deserves to be stripped from his belt for cowardice and dumped. If he only wants big money fights he should be fighting Jake Paul or something. That supposed Conor or Chandler fight is complete bullshit. There are true WW contenders who deserve their shot. Fuck Edwards.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Its not his fault. UFC insisted on the Colby fight which Colby postponed. Now they don't want to give Belal his shot but won't match Leon up with anyone else.

UFC matchmakers have ruined this sport

Real talk.

 

[DomiDomi]

Wasting your prime years not fighting is almost always a mistake. Leon will not be able to retire comfortably

Eh, you mean financially?

He's defended the belt twice presumably getting PPV points. He'll have a 3rd title defence on home soil in July, likely beating Belal. Which will hopefully mean he gets at least 4 PPV pay days as champ - even with UFC's stingy pay scales, he should be a wealthy man.

 

[DomiDomi]

When is this guy going to defend the title? Do y'all remember Usman's reign and how active he was?
I don't know what the schedules are but I'm certain this guy isn't defending his belt till September, and if he wins, we're going to wait for him till July 2025 for him to fight again. His reign is terrible, he's really holding up the top 7/8.

He's hoping that they all cancel out each other, whereas Kamaru was doing a demolition job on everyone one after the other.

WW was an exciting division but he's stinking up the place.

He's almost certainly defending in July in Manchester, it's just not confirmed yet.

He defended in December and he accepted UFC 300 but didn't get to fight through no fault of his own.

He defended twice in 2023, he still has the chance to defend twice in 2024, it's just the UFC scheduling is shite.

Although I would like to see more champs defend 3 times a year rather than aiming for twice.

 

[Afrikan]

UFC should just accept a tournament format for some of these divisions that they can't figure out/or are indecisive about.

You either enter the tournament, or you're not in the title picture.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

It is his fault. This isnt like a one off for him this was him before he even won the championship. Great fighter, terrible champion. Man struggles to average two fight a year. Its pathetic.

You're wrong, considering how many fights he was booked for that opponents never showed up for

 

[king hippo]

Jones: 0 fights in the last 12 months
Aspinall: 1 fight in the last 12 months
Pereira: 2 fights in the last 12 months
Dricus: 1 fight in the last 12 months
Leon: 1 fight in the last 12 months
Islam: 1 fight in the last 12 months
Topuria: 1 fight in the last 12 months
O'Malley: 1 fight in the last 12 months
Pantoja: 2 fights in the last 12 months

Leon is no less active than other champions, almost all of them only fight once a year.

primadonna cans. win a belt once then live off of it for as long as you can..

 

[RockyLockridge]

He has said yes to every fight offered.

Marketing tactic so they can say Leon accepted every fight what a badass while only offering fights that had zero percent chance of happening

 

[HP_Nut]

In general, many UFC champs have been relatively inactive in recent yrs. Usman was quite active, perhaps part of the reason is he was super confident as 3 of those fights were against guys he's already beaten before (Mas, Colby, & Leon), so he didn't feel the need to duck or hold off longer

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Didn't they tried to match Leon with 3 guys for 300 and all of them said no?

 

[Pechan]

Marketing tactic so they can say Leon accepted every fight what a badass while only offering fights that had zero percent chance of happening

Ok

 

[Streeter]

He fights on same schedule I guess as Islam an Khazmat. Once every 9 months to a year

 

[Milenkovic]

I don't blame Leon at all. I blame the matchmaking

What's even worse is that Jones/Stipe was meant to be last November, Jones got injured, and Dana is still pushing for that fight to be rebooked and unless there is another NY card before November, Dana said that's what theyre aiming for, while Aspinall has to defend an Interim belt

It's all a joke