StandingO

The rubber match between Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards and former Champion Kamaru Usman unfolded in London this past Saturday. The leadup to fight night was as expected between two fighters with some bad blood still spilling over as “Headshot Dead” chants poured through the crowd during weigh-ins. Ultimately, after five weird (but competitive) rounds, Edwards walked away from the octagon with the belt still wrapped around his waist. Was this a decisive enough fight for Edwards to stake his thrown over Usman? Well, that can be debated. But, over the totality of 25 minutes, Edwards did appear to have the more noteworthy and impressive moments. 

I left the fight having more questions for Usman than answers about Edwards. As I saw fellow MMA writer Brett Appley tweet, Usman didn’t appear to fully grasp the situation or appear to even want to reclaim the belt that awfully bad. His actions inside the cage were very indicative of that. There was a lack of assertiveness in his fighting style on Saturday night and although Edwards didn’t appear to be much better, he did just enough to top Usman.

What I believe won Edwards the fight was his stellar takedown defense. We saw in the last fight just how much of an advantage Usman had when he brought it to the mat. It was evident that Edwards did his due diligence during fight camp and was well prepared to not let that happen again. Usman was just 4 of 15 in takedown attempts and the few times he was successful Edwards did a fantastic job fighting the hands and working his way back up in little time.  

Throughout the fight, Usman led the charge in backing down Edwards but he never really did much when he closed the distance. Edwards would stop him in his tracks with a leg kick (50 in total) or catch him with a left hook in close distance. Both fighters had some strikes that landed and did some damage but nothing of significance to wobble or stun the other. 

Edwards would have more convincingly taken home the victory if it wasn’t for a lack of judgment fence grab that resulted in a point deduction. Usman was in the midst of pulling Edwards back to the mat when Edwards not only once but twice grabbed the cage diminishing the surefire takedown. Herb Dean felt it was clear and obvious enough to warrant a point deduction and stood the fighters back up. The rest of the round was close enough to have it as a 10-8 Usman or 9-9. Two of the three judges sided with the 10-8 leaving the championship rounds as the determining factor. 

Ultimately, we were left with a competitive but lower-than-expectations fight. In the meantime, this puts the rivalry to the side for now as both fighters will be heading in different directions in the welterweight division. While we saw turmoil heading into the fight that subsided to the mutual respect as opponents in the end. Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman: two great fighters.