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This weekend sees UFC welterweight contender Leon Edwards face Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC Vegas 21. The fight between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad is an intriguing one, even for one put together on late notice, but is it fair to Edwards?
Should Leon Edwards be fighting in a UFC Fight Night main event against the #13 ranked Welterweight right now? Or should he be preparing for a shot at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman?
Why hasn’t Leon Edwards been given a UFC Welterweight title shot?
The easiest explanation as to why Leon Edwards hasn’t been given the next UFC welterweight title shot is that he hasn’t fought in a very long time.
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The last time we saw Edwards in action was back in July 2019 at UFC on ESPN 4. There, he defeated Rafael dos Anjos in arguably his best UFC performance to date.
That was enough to book him into a fight with former UFC welterweight kingpin Tyron Woodley in March 2020.
The fight was supposed to headline the UFC’s latest trip to London and would’ve been seen by many as a homecoming for Leon Edwards. He had fought in UFC events in the UK on several occasions, but this was the first time he was being pushed as the star attraction.
BT Sport in the UK produced some fantastic vignettes hyping up Edwards’ return and his rise through the ranks. If he could beat Woodley, then the sky appeared to be the limit.
But then disaster – in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic – struck.
The UFC’s London show was canceled. Edwards’ booking against Woodley fell through, and the UK native couldn’t head to the US to face the former champion. And in turn, ‘Rocky’ then saw his thunder stolen by Gilbert Burns, who defeated Woodley in one of the first mid-pandemic UFC shows in May.
From there, Leon Edwards became the forgotten man in the UFC’s welterweight division. He had to watch as Burns was given a shot at Usman, only to withdraw because of a case of COVID-19.
Jorge Masvidal stepped into his place and lost to Usman pretty convincingly, but that only moved Burns to the front of the queue] again. Meanwhile, the UFC attempted to book Leon Edwards into a fight with fast-rising star Khamzat Chimaev.
‘Rocky’ initially refused the booking, only for the UFC to withdraw him from their rankings – a petty reminder that the UFC holds all the cards when it comes to the fortunes of its fighters.
Edwards then agreed to the fight with Chimaev, only for it to be canceled on multiple occasions because both men contracted COVID-19. Chimaev is still recovering from the virus – hence Edwards being booked against late replacement Belal Muhammad this weekend.
If you take all of this into consideration, Edwards doesn’t warrant a shot at the UFC welterweight title. He hasn’t fought in well over a year.
But despite this, ‘Rocky’ is still on an eight-fight win streak in one of the UFC’s deepest divisions. So what will it take for him to get the shot?
Will Leon Edwards get a shot at the title if he beats Belal Muhammad?
If Leon Edwards defeats Belal Muhammad at UFC Vegas 21, as he’s expected to, will that be enough to net him a shot at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman?
In all honesty, it ought to be. Usman and Edwards have fought once before – a fight in late 2015 that was closer than most remember it being.
Usman outpointed ‘Rocky’ that day, but since then, the UK native has gone on an eight-fight unbeaten streak, defeating the likes of Donald Cerrone and Rafael dos Anjos.
However, right now it seems likely that the next shot at Usman is going to go to Jorge Masvidal – and the two men will have a season of The Ultimate Fighter to build their rivalry, too.
That means that any potential Usman/Masvidal clash won’t happen until the latter part of 2021 at best, likely leaving Leon Edwards to have to fight again even if he beats Muhammad.
In a sporting sense, that simply isn’t right.
Masvidal already had a shot at Usman at July 2020’s UFC 251. And he was thoroughly beaten by ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ in a one-sided affair.
Sure, ‘Gamebred’ can complain about taking the fight on short notice, but Usman was also preparing for a very different fighter in Gilbert Burns. The champion still whitewashed the challenger.
Since then, Masvidal has done nothing but sit on the sidelines and largely complain about his treatment. In what world does that warrant an instant rematch with Usman?
Why does the UFC favour Jorge Masvidal over Leon Edwards?
Masvidal is a highly exciting fighter who’s more than willing to talk plenty of trash. His actions outside the octagon attempt to live up to his self-proclaimed ‘Street Jesus’ moniker, and he’s become highly popular because of this.
An example of this was the fact that UFC 251 drew a reported 1.3 million pay-per-view buys. Compare that with the latest show that was headlined by Usman – UFC 258, which drew 500k buys reportedly – and it’s clear that Masvidal is a drawing card of some notoriety.
Leon Edwards, meanwhile, has never headlined a UFC pay-per-view. The Fight Night cards he headlined were hardly marquee events – one being a UFC Fight Pass exclusive show from Singapore.
While his background is far closer to the street thug persona adopted by Masvidal – he grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and then Erdington, which is a crime-riddled area of Birmingham, England – Leon Edwards is largely a soft-spoken, respectful fighter who lets his actions do the talking.
More to the point, despite winning eight fights in a row, Edwards hasn’t exactly set the world alight from an excitement standpoint. He’s only finished three opponents in the UFC, and his last three fights have gone the distance.
But should that matter?
Is the UFC a sport or a spectacle?
From a sporting perspective, it absolutely shouldn’t matter. But the UFC isn’t run on merit, at least not anymore.
Longtime UFC fans could point to the promotion not running from a sporting perspective for a long time.
For instance, 2013 saw Nick Diaz – who hadn’t fought in a year and was coming off a loss – given a shot at UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre ahead of Johny Hendricks, who’d won five fights in a row.
Instead, Hendricks was given a wickedly tricky fight with former interim champion Carlos Condit at the same event as St. Pierre vs. Diaz.
Of course, justice prevailed and after ‘GSP’ beat Diaz, Hendricks was given the next shot at the title.
So could the same thing happen here with Leon Edwards? It’s possible.
However, it’s clear by their treatment of him that the UFC simply doesn’t see Leon Edwards as a star. If he wants to gain a shot at the title, he may well have to win two, maybe three more fights.
2021 in the UFC is about star power and not fighting skills. The ability to draw crowds and pay-per-view buys is more valuable than martial arts ability.
The UFC always suggests that it – and the sport of MMA – evolved from spectacle to sport during the late 1990s. Going by its current trends, it could now head back in the other direction.
