England’s Leon Edwards pulled off the impossible when he knocked Kamaru Usman out in the fifth round of the main event at UFC 278. In doing so, he claimed the UFC welterweight title, and UFC president Dana White declared at the post-fight press conference that he’s already looking at a rematch. At Wembley Stadium.
The only thing that might get in the way is the English weather. “How do you not do – f*ck, Wembley. I don’t know. Yeah.
Dana White Wants To Book Wembley Stadium for Edwards vs Usman 3
We could go to England whenever the hell we want to now. We could go to England – we were selling out England before. Now you look at, do you do a bigger arena? I’m scared to go outside, and I’m definitely scared to go outside in England. I’m serious, but joking about England.
Anything is possible in England now. It would be fun, but it’s scary at the same time. The weather isn’t the greatest in England.”
Wembley Stadium is England’s largest venue, home to the national soccer and rugby teams, and has no retractable covering in the event of rain. UFC events in London have been enormously successful in the recent past, thanks in no small part to the ascendance of Englishman Paddy Pimblett and Tom Aspinall. A Wembley event could be a record-setter.
Dana White will have a few months at least to let the dust settle on this fight before he has to make a choice. Kamaru Usman will likely face a lengthy medical suspension following such a violent knockout. “I don’t think [Edwards] would have to sit and wait anyway due to the knockout.
I don’t think he would have to wait that long. He would have to go back into camp and start training anyway. First of all, we’d have to have the date. We’re all booked up all the way to – I think we’re booked up into January now. There will be no waiting for him, even if it’s a rematch.” All in all, Dana White cited Edwards vs Usman 2 as an example of everything great about MMA.
“You think of everything that was on the line for Usman tonight, and Usman fought with absolute and total confidence all night. He fought the perfect fight. Might not be the most fan-friendly style, but he was landing big shots to the body, big shots to the head, elbows. Couldn’t have fought a more perfect fight until the last minute.
It’s how crazy the sport is. It’s what makes this sport the greatest sport in the world. That you can sit through four rounds and four minutes and that can happen in a fight. Anything is possible in this sport. Every time we make a fight and it’s like, ‘This is a lopsided, one-sided f*cking – there are no lopsided, one-sided fights in this sport. Anything is possible. I said it to you guys this week, the problem with this fight is people won’t give Leon enough credit and he’s a very dangerous opponent. Wow.”
