Welterweight title contender Leon Edwards has detailed the crazy lengths UFC wanted him to go to save his scheduled fight with Tyron Woodley.
The promotion was set to host an event in London this past weekend with Englishman Edwards in the headline slot against former 170lb champion Woodley. Unfortunately, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic meant that the event was scrapped, and the UFC planned to build an American based card at the last minute.
Edwards told BT Sport’s Adam Catterall exactly how everything played out and detailed the extreme lengths the UFC wanted him to go to, to help save their card, he said.
“I went to bed on Saturday night, and I got a phone call waking me up about 9 am on Sunday from my management team saying the fight’s off in London, and you need to get to America today,” Edwards said. “I was like, ‘hold on, what? How long [have I got]?’. They said you’ve got three hours to get to Heathrow and fly from Heathrow with your team. I was like, ‘that’s impossible.’
“I was like ‘where am I flying to’ and they said, ‘we don’t know yet,’ just get on a plane to America’ and we’ll sort that once we get there. So yeah, that was it really. They didn’t care about me getting back [with the travel ban]. They just cared about me getting there.”
Unable to leave his family on such short notice, Edwards tried to negotiate flying a couple of days later but was told it is now or never. This prompted his withdrawal from the card and the UFC began looking for alternative options before eventually scrapping the idea.
“We phoned the UFC again and said can we leave Monday or Tuesday, giving us a little bit more time to try and sort stuff out, but they said no, you’ve got to leave today [Sunday] if you wanna do it.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
Did Leon Edwards make the right call not travelling to face Tyron Woodley?