The newly crowned UFC welterweight champion is more than happy to fight Masvidal at some point.
Leon Edwards is fine with fighting Jorge Masvidal but wants ‘Gamebred’ to earn it first.
Following his stunning fifth-round KO of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278, the world has opened up for the newly crowned UFC welterweight champion, who has several options to consider for his next outing. Among them is Masvidal, the man who caught him with a ‘three-piece and a soda’ during a run-in backstage at UFC London over two years ago. Both men were to settle their differences at UFC 269, but Masvidal withdrew due to injury.
Now that he sits atop the division, Edwards expressed interest in revisiting Masvidal, but if — and only if — his foe can return to the Octagon and get some wins.
“[Masvidal] is on my list,” said Edwards on The Jim Rome Show. “But at the moment, I think Jorge, he’s on like a two-three fight losing streak. So he needs to go out there and get some wins and make the fight make sense. That’s a fight I think would be massive for the UFC. To get my revenge on him, I cannot wait.”
Because Edwards vs. Masvidal is a ways from happening, ‘Rocky’ shifts his focus to a trilogy with Usman.
“I think Usman is deserving of the trilogy,” said Edwards. “I’d love to have it back in the U.K. though. In Wembley would be good. The O2 would be good in London. But, yeah. I’d love to give him the rematch. Run it back again, let’s settle the score.”
UFC president Dana White has previously said the promotion is ‘looking at every option out there right now,’ so either of those venues could host Usman vs. Edwards 3.