Leon Edwards is not in the best situation right now.
Having not competed since July 2019 and having turned down a number of fights since, the Birmingham native was recently removed from the UFC’s welterweight rankings.
Now we have more information on the situation according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani as it turns out Edwards declined a number of fights, including a short-notice title bout with Kamaru Usman.
“UFC officials have told Leon Edwards’ team that he is being removed from the UFC rankings, sources say. This comes following frustrations surrounding not being able to book his next fight. No comment yet from Edwards or UFC. Of course, they can do this since it is their rankings.
“After the Woodley fight fell through in March, the next offer came on short notice to fight Usman in July, then Covington when Woodley fight was iffy, then Geoff Neal and then Khamzat Chimaev on 12/19. Edwards didn’t agree to those fights.
“After the Chimaev fight was finally turned down, the rankings removal happened. This has happened before (Diaz, Nathan), and it doesn’t mean he’s released. He’s not. But it will be interesting to see how they repair the relationship.
“As for Chimaev, still no opponent yet. For whatever reason, Magny isn’t of interest to the brass so they are looking for other options right now, I’m told. Do they ultimately fall on Magny? Possible. But not at the moment.”
Although many were rightfully critical of the UFC’s decision to remove him from the rankings, it’s hard to defend Edwards now especially as Usman and Colby Covington were two fights he was previously campaigning for.
And now, it looks like he has reached the point where he is finally willing to fight Chimaev as he responded on Twitter.
“I’m still in the rankings. F*ck all the inactivity, the only reason I haven’t fought is because all these so called top guys turned me down. Khamzat want to fight then?”
Hopefully, we can see an Edwards vs. Chimaev fight headline the last show of the calendar year.
What do you make of these revelations?