It takes more than a few fights in the Octagon to impress Leon
Edwards.
It’s been a while since
Ultimate Fighting Championship fans saw “Rocky” competing in
the Octagon. A plethora of reasons has kept the 29-year-old fighter
away from competition for what is almost an 18-month hiatus,
including a global pandemic. However, he should dust off the gloves
in a few weeks when he will meet rising star Khamzat
Chimaev (9-0) on an upcoming UFC Fight Night event that will go
down on Dec. 19. That night, the 29-year-old Englander will put his
eight-bout winning streak on the line, including victories over
names like Donald
Cerrone, Vicente
Luque and Gunnar
Nelson.
In a recent interview with
ESPN, the British fighter revealed that he believes he will get
a shot at the 170-pound championship once he gets past Chimaev.
“That’s been mentioned, yeah,” he said about receiving a title
shot. “If when I get there and beat him, I believe I’ll get my
title shot next. Who you’re going to give it to? Masvidal again?
Colby again? It has to be me, right?”
In the same interview, he also confessed his skepticism regarding
the rapid ascent of “Borz.”
“I believe he’s overhyped,” Edwards (18-3) added. “It’s hard to
judge him. As I said, the competition he faced is pretty low. I was
once 9-0 in my career. I once had an eight-second knockout in the
UFC. I’ve done everything he’s done. It’s hard to judge him. The
UFC is just trying to hype him, so we will see.”
Back in October, the UFC pulled Edwards
from the rankings due to inactivity. One day later, Edwards was
reinstated as the No. 3 ranked welterweight. While talking to ESPN,
Edwards confirmed that he was negotiating with the UFC at the time
of the “weird” move.
“We were in negotiations,” he said. “They took me out of the
rankings, and they put me back in. It was a weird thing.”
The last time he stepped into the Octagon, Edwards upended former
UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos
Anjos via unanimous decision at UFC on ESPN 4. “Rocky” was
scheduled to clash with former 170-pound titleholder Tyron
Woodley on March 21 at UFC London before the event was canceled
due to the COVID-19 outbreak.