Leon Edwards slated his first title defence will be in the UK in the first quarter of 2023. But who will the 31-year-old UFC champion face off against?
Edwards won the UFC Welterweight title after a mouthwatering fifth-round finish of then pound-for-pound king Kamaru Usman. Going into the fight, Usman was on a 20-fight win streak and seemingly cruising to make it 21 before ‘Rocky’ turned the lights out at UFC 278. The pair are now 1-1 against each other, and with Usman’s dominance in the division, a trilogy has to be the right call, right?
The highest-selling and most prominent name in the fight game recently confirmed his desire to come back at Welterweight. Of course, I am talking about ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor.
McGregor has teased his return to combat with a series of social media posts and interviews. Rumoured circulated the UFC superstar would rematch Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring. There have also been talks of his trilogy with Nate Diaz, or even a fight fan’s dream fight against serial scrapper Justin Gaethje has too been mentioned. We’ve seen it before with McGregor. The eyes and PPV buy he brings to a fight are unmatched in the UFC. He’s probably earned title shots and key fights before ranked and more worthy opponents. So does he have his eyes on the Welterweight belt next?
Leon Edwards on McGregor Matchup
Leon Edwards and ‘The Nortorious’ both share a management team, Paradigm Sports. Here is what he had to say on the matter:
“That would make it easier to happen. Everyone would know where to stand as far as negotiating contracts with the UFC,” Edwards said. “What normally happens in fights that don’t come together is that one management team doesn’t agree with the other management team, so the fight doesn’t happen. If we’ve got the same manager, that should mean it would be easier to happen.”
“I think he [McGregor] probably will come back, he’s got big now as well so I think he’ll definitely come back at welterweight and like I said, we’ve got the same management team so it’s a fight that would be easy to make if it was to happen. Do I think I’d win? 100 per cent. I think I’m the younger and more technical fighter but my focus isn’t on Conor at all, because I’ve got killers around me who are active now that are more challenging than McGregor.”
What do you think of this potential match up, and who should Leon fight next?
Feautured image credits to Embed from Getty Images and Embed from Getty Images
