It seems to be a foregone conclusion that Leon
Edwards and Kamaru
Usman will meet again. It’s just a matter of when and
where.
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Edwards evened the series with Usman at 1-apiece at UFC 278 with a
thrilling fifth-round knockout victory to claim the welterweight
title. Afterward, UFC president Dana White said that he’d like to
have the third meeting between the two welterweights in Edwards’
home country.
“How do you not do [a trilogy]?” White said at the UFC 278
post-fight press conference.
“We could go to England whenever the hell we want to now. We could
go to England – we were selling out England before. Now you look
at, do you do a bigger arena? I’m scared to go outside, and I’m
definitely scared to go outside in England. I’m serious, but joking
about England. Anything is possible in England now. It would be
fun, but it’s scary at the same time. The weather isn’t the
greatest in England.”
Before Edwards’ head kick changed the complexion of the UFC’s
welterweight division, Usman was well on his way to a decision
victory.
“It’s how crazy this sport is,” White said. “It’s what makes this
sport the greatest sport in the world. That you can sit through
four rounds and four minutes and that can happen in a fight.
Anything’s possible in this sport. Every time we make a fight and
it’s like ‘this is one-sided, lopsided’ — there are no lopsided,
one-sided fights in this sport. Anything is possible. I said this
week talking to you guys, the problem is people won’t give Leon
enough credit and he’s a very dangerous opponent. Wow.
“We’re probably in a situation, there was a minute left in the
fight, we probably had people getting up and walking out because it
was looking like this was going to be a shutout for Usman and boom,
a head kick. It’s what makes this sport so great, so exciting and
why it’s so fun. You can never take it for granted and think that
something’s over until it’s over.”
Usman entered UFC 278 on a 15-fight winning streak in the
promotion, and his performance was almost enough to extend that
streak to 16. That is, until it wasn’t. Regardless, White was still
impressed by Usman’s work against Edwards up until the last minute
of the fifth round.
“You think of everything that was on the line for Usman tonight,
and Usman fought with absolute and total confidence all night,”
White said. “He fought the perfect fight. It might not be the most
fan friendly style, but he was landing big shots to the body, big
shots to the head, elbows. Couldn’t have fought a more perfect
fight until the last minute.”