UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards wants to finally settle his long-standing beef with Jorge Masvidal. In the way of a clash is the fact that Masvidal is on a three-fight losing streak, and won’t be reaching title contention any time soon, which Edwards expanded on in a recent episode of The MMA Hour.
However, if Masvidal can get past Gilbert Burns at UFC 287, Edwards is willing to give “Gamebred” a shot. “For sure. If he goes out there and beats Gilbert, I think that’s the fight to make.
Leon Edwards Promises Title Shot For Masvidal… IF He Can Win at UFC 287
It’s been a long time, three, four years brewing. Let’s get in there and settle it once and for all and go from there.” Another factor in the equation is Edwards’ upcoming rematch with the man he dethroned, Kamaru Usman. “It’s fun to see, two, three years ago, they didn’t know who I was.
Now I’m king of the division. Little old Leon slid in, took it away, and now it’s back in Birmingham, sitting on my table. It’s all good. I’m focused on Usman. He’s the hardest fight in the division. So I’m focused on him, get past him, and from there we’ll see who is next.”
Leon Edwards’ road to the title was long and arduous. He spent years racking up wins and seeing other fighters, like Masvidal, get their hands on Usman before he got the chance to capture UFC gold. In Edwards’ opinion, he did things the right way, and advises fellow welterweight Belal Muhammad to do the same thing. “Every day I go on social media, there’s something about me that he’s posting. Move on with your life.
It’s been however long it’s been, just move on. If it was a close fight, I could understand the back and forth, but it wasn’t a close fight until the eye poke. I was literally battering him pillar to post and then the eye poke happened. The way he’s behaving is like it was a tight fight, it was close, and then the eye poke happened and now I’m ducking him. Mate, just move on. Go fight Colby [Covington] or Khamzat [Chimaev] or somebody. Fight to get there.
That’s what I had to do. No one gave me s***. I got removed from the ranking and everything. I took the hard way. Now I’m here, I’m not just giving you the title shot because you got eye poked. Go carry on fighting, earn it, and when your time comes, your time comes, like mine did.”
Is Masvidal vs Edwards the fight to make? Let us know in the comments.
