Attempting to better five failed prior attempts to snatch the undisputed welterweight throne from Kamaru Usman, challenger, Leon Edwards has made his intentions clear to “humble” the Auchi native at UFC 278 this Saturday in Salt Lake City.
Entering his title rematch with Usman off the back of a 10-fight undefeated run, Birmingham native, Leon Edwards will attempt to clinch UFC gold at the first time of trying, as well as avenge a prior unanimous decision loss to Usman back in December 2015.
Appearing alongside the quarter of Paulo Costa, Luke Rockhold, Jose Aldo, and Merab Davlishvili at a press conference tonight to promote UFC 278, Usman questioned the recent disrespect he interprets from Edwards ahead of their rematch.
Sporting his NFT necklace, which displays his blistering rematch knockout of Jorge Masvidal last year, Usman poked fun at Edwards’ run-in with the Miami native back in 2018, claiming that the Team Renagade BJJ & MMA mainstay, and his “mandem” failed to retaliate.
Leon Edwards believes he sees through a persona Kamaru Usman is putting on
Questioning the arrogance of Usman in recent fights and in the approaches to his Octagon outings, Leon Edwards claimed that he would thoroughly “humble” the undisputed welterweight kingpin this weekend.
Continuing in his intense vein of form tonight, former middleweight champion, Rockhold took umbrage with Costa’s disregard to his decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu base, claiming he would make the Brazilian look like a “b*tch” if their fight landed on the Octagon canvas.
Sounds like @LukeRockhold is ready for this fight to go to the ground
[ #UFC278 | Saturday | Live on ESPN+ PPV: https://t.co/hD8HR6leJq ] pic.twitter.com/acktJDzafn
— UFC (@ufc) August 18, 2022
Furthermore, Rockhold expressed his disappointment with the fact his teammate, former UFC heavyweight champion, Cain Velasquez would be unable to attend UFC 278 due to his ongoing legal issues in regards to a shooting earlier this year; “Cain is a f*cking good human being, the world f*cking sucks. I love that man. It’s bullsh*t.”
Questioning the weight of Costa – who forced an impromptu light heavyweight headliner with Marvin Vettori last year, Rockhold claimed that the Belo Horizonte native struggles to deal with adversity.
“The one time you met adversity, you missed weight by 20 f*cking pounds,” Luke Rockhold fired at Paulo Costa.”