Leon Edwards calls altercation between Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman staged; vows to take revenge on 'Gamebred'

The rivalry between 'BMF' title-holder Jorge Masvidal and the reigning UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman is heating up pretty quickly, especially after their recent altercation at a Super Bowl media event. Post the altercation, the pair have generated massive hype which will certainly help them sell a potential title fight later in the year.

One man who definitely isn't jumping on the hype bandwagon for the fight is British welterweight, Leon Edwards. Edwards himself has a history with Masvidal as the latter punched him at a backstage event in London after Masvidal beat Darren Till. Masvidal later jokingly claimed that he gave Edwards 'the three-piece and a soda'.

Edwards was recently interviewed by ESPN where he was seen discussing his upcoming fight against former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in the main event of UFC London on 21st March. When Masvidal's topic came up, Edwards was quick to remind everyone that Masvidal is on his radar. (h/t MMA Mania)

”When I get past Tyron Woodley, that fight will be down the line. If I don’t fight for the title next, it’ll probably be him in May. Cuz I’ll have just fought so I won’t be able to fight in May. But that fight’ll happen this year I reckon. 100 percent that fight needs to happen. We’ll fight in the street or in the Octagon, there will be a fight where we’ll see each other. That fight will happen.”

Although Edwards clearly wants the fight, it will be difficult for him to get it as Masvidal has announced that he is only looking for big money fights at this stage of his career. Leon plans to take the longer route to get his revenge on Masvidal.

”If I’m busy and can’t fight, then I guess he’s next in line, right? Then why not? Then if them two fight, I fight the winner of that. Or if not I’ll fight the champ next, Usman. Then after I beat Usman, he can fight me for the belt. So however the fight goes either way, we’re gonna fight this year or early next year.”

Edwards also made it clear that he believes the altercation between Masvidal and Usman was staged. He is of the view that it is nothing but a PR stunt to garner attention and hype for a possible fight.

“It’s basically playing. Because they’re walking for like a minute with a camera behind him. That’s just the game we’re in right now. It’s the social media era. The WWE era. That’s the way the game is leaning at the moment. It is what it is for me, I’m responsible for my career and what I need to do and being who I need to be to acheive what I want to achieve. To plan - because you can tell that’s planned - the camera was walking behind him a long way before it got to Usman. So it’s like ‘Oh let’s go do this.’”