After a lot of backchannel drama, Edwards is sharing his thoughts on what happened with Ian Garry getting kicked out of his Birmingham gym.
Leon Edwards is coming into a big weekend at UFC 296 where he’ll defend his welterweight title against Colby Covington. It’s a fight he’s put all his focus on, but people keep dragging him back to gym drama with Ian Garry.
Garry is also fighting on December 16th against Vicente Luque, and a win could propel him close to the welterweight top five. He’s nowhere near a title shot, but a few weeks ago he accused Edwards of being so concerned about a future fight that Ian was kicked out of Renegade MMA in Birmingham.
Now Edwards is clarifying the situation, saying Garry just didn’t gel with the team.
“I feel like he came to the gym, he just didn’t fit into the gym,” Edwards said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “This is like the third gym now he’s been kicked out of. It is what it is. He’s just a different kind of guy, he’s hard to blend with. Everywhere he goes there’s a camera there. Everywhere he goes, his wife is there, his kid is there. There’s a lot going on.”
“There wasn’t any bad blood,” he added. “He came out and made it into a big thing, and it wasn’t. He’s been kicked out of more gyms than mine. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Obviously because I’m the champion — he wants to ride off the back of my coattails, and go back and forth with me on social media. It is what it is. You’ve got to focus on yourself.”
Edwards has done that, refusing to fuel the fire that Garry had started. But other MMA fighters in the region weren’t so reserved. Paddy Pimblett came out and suggested Garry had been headkick KO’d by Edwards in sparring.
“I didn’t knock him out clean, no,” Edwards clarified. “He got a little taste for sure.”
From what he experienced in those sparring sessions, he’s not particularly worried about “The Future.”
“Skill wise, he’s a long way away from even a thought to my brain for competing for a title,” Leon admitted. “Like I said, I wish him well in his endeavors but I feel like skill wise right now, he’s not a guy that I’m think ‘Oh s—, I need to stay away from this guy.’”