Leon Edwards has his eyes set on Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman after his dominant win over Rafael dos Anjos. For the Englishman, it was the kind of performance that results in title shot talks. And, with him now being on an eight-fight winning streak, he is just ecstatic. “I’m very happy,” Edwards said to […]
Leon Edwards has his eyes set on Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman after his dominant win over Rafael dos Anjos.
For the Englishman, it was the kind of performance that results in title shot talks. And, with him now being on an eight-fight winning streak, he is just ecstatic.
“I’m very happy,” Edwards said to MMA Junkie. “It felt great to go out there and outclass a former world champion in RDA in the way I did it. I’m on an eight-fight win streak now, second-most to the current champion, so it feels good.
“Now they’re seeing my work and seeing how good I am. I’m proving to the world that I am one of the best fighters, especially coming out of the U.K.”
Being the next star from the U.K. is something Leon Edwards wants. The only UFC champion for England is Michael Bisping. But, Edwards expects himself to become the second very soon.
He is also hoping his recent run will encourage others to get into the sport.
“It’s amazing,” Edwards said. “It’s one of my aims to do it from the UK and prove to the kids that are coming up behind me that you can also be the best in the world coming up through the UK. I’ve grown up being told we had to go to America, Brazil, wherever in order to get the training because we can’t wrestle, we can’t grapple, blah, blah, blah.
“But we’ve got great talent here in the UK. There are great fighters and great coaching staff here. So it feels amazing to do it all from my hometown, coming from Birmingham and seeing all the kids following my footsteps into MMA. It’s amazing to see.”
Regardless of that, Leon Edwards is now ranked in the top-five. And, he either wants to fight, rival Jorge Masvidal next or fight Kamaru Usman for the belt. Those, he says are his only options.
“For me, the two fights to make are Usman and ‘The Weasel.’ There’s no other fights for me, really,” Edwards said.
“I haven’t heard much from the UFC since Saturday,” he admitted. “I know Dana came out and said he liked the me and Jorge Masvidal fight. That’s all I’ve heard. I think they’ll try to push for that fight, and hopefully we’ll get that done.”
UFC on ESPN 4, aka UFC San Antonio, went down last Saturday from the AT&T Center. Even with the card going against the likes of Caleb Plant vs. Mike Lee, Keith Thurman vs. Manny Pacquiao on pay-per-view, the card nearly drew a million viewers. According to MMAFighting.com, UFC San Antonio averaged 957,000 viewers, while Plant […]
UFC on ESPN 4, aka UFC San Antonio, went down last Saturday from the AT&T Center. Even with the card going against the likes of Caleb Plant vs. Mike Lee, Keith Thurman vs. Manny Pacquiao on pay-per-view, the card nearly drew a million viewers.
According to MMAFighting.com, UFC San Antonio averaged 957,000 viewers, while Plant vs. Lee averaged 923,000 viewers. Viewership for the card peaked at the main event with 1,160,000 viewers. No other sporting event was able to match UFC San Antonio in the time slot.
The main event saw a pivotal welterweight fight between Leon Edwards and Rafael dos Anjos. There, it was the Englishman who was able to get it done as he dominated the fight from start to finish and even won all five rounds on one judge’s scorecard.
Also on the card was a heavyweight fight between former NFL pro-bowler, Greg Hardy taking on Juan Adams which was a highly anticipated fight. Many fans thought Adams would be the one to stop Hardy, yet it was the former NFL star who won in just 46 seconds by TKO. The main card also saw the likes of Dan Hooker knocking out James Vick, Walt Harris knocking out Alexey Oleynik, and decision wins over Alexander Hernandez and Andrei Arlovski over Francisco Trinaldso, and Ben Rothwell, respectively.
The next big ESPN show is set for August 3 where an even more intriguing welterweight bout between Colby Covington and Robbie Lawler headlines it.
This past weekend (Sat. July 20, 2019) UFC San Antonio took place from the AT&T Center in Texas. In the main event of the night, Leon Edwards picked up a dominant unanimous decision victory over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. After the win, “Rocky” called out rival Jorge Masvidal to meet him inside the […]
This past weekend (Sat. July 20, 2019) UFC San Antonio took place from the AT&T Center in Texas.
In the main event of the night, Leon Edwards picked up a dominant unanimous decision victory over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. After the win, “Rocky” called out rival Jorge Masvidal to meet him inside the Octagon next.
Also, in the co-main event, Walt Harris made quick work of Aleksei Oleinik with a 12-second knockout win. Harris could be looking at a big name opponent next after his stunning victory. And of course, Dan Hooker pulled off a nasty first-round knockout win over James Vick at lightweight.
The new UFC Rankings have been released following this past weekend’s show. Edwards jumped up eight spots on the welterweight list, breaking into the top five by overtaking the No. 4-spot.
Check out the full updated fighter rankings here:
POUND-FOR-POUND 1 Daniel Cormier 2 Khabib Nurmagomedov +1 3 Jon Jones -1 4 Henry Cejudo 5 Amanda Nunes 6 Max Holloway 7 Kamaru Usman 8 Dustin Poirier +2 9 Stipe Miocic +2 10 Robert Whittaker -2 11 Tony Ferguson +1 12 Conor McGregor -2 13 Valentina Shevchenko 14 Tyron Woodley 15 Jessica Andrade
FLYWEIGHT Champion: Henry Cejudo 1 Joseph Benavidez 2 Jussier Formiga 3 Alexandre Pantoja 4 Deiveson Figueiredo 5 Sergio Pettis +1 6 Tim Elliott -1 7 Brandon Moreno +3 8 Rogerio Bontorin -1 9 Jordan Espinosa -1 10 Ryan Benoit -2 11 Kai Kara France 12 Alex Perez 13 Raulian Paiva 14 Matt Schnell 15 Mark de la Rosa
BANTAMWEIGHT Champion: Henry Cejudo 1 Marlon Moraes 2 Aljamain Sterling 3 Raphael Assuncao 4 Petr Yan 5 Pedro Munhoz 6 Dominick Cruz 7 Cody Garbrandt 8 Jimmie Rivera 9 Corey Sandhagen 10 Cody Stamann 11 Rob Font 12 John Dodson 13 Song Yadong 14 Urijah Faber 15 Thomas Almeida
FEATHERWEIGHT Champion: Max Holloway 1 Alexander Volkanovski 2 Brian Ortega 3 Jose Aldo 4 Frankie Edgar 5 Zabit Magomedsharipov 6 Chan Sung Jung 7 Yair Rodriguez 8 Jeremy Stephens 9 Josh Emmett 10 Renato Moicano 11 Calvin Kattar 12 Arnold Allen 13 Shane Burgos 14 Ryan Hall 15 Mirsad Bektic
LIGHTWEIGHT Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov 1 Dustin Poirier (Interim Champion) 2 Tony Ferguson 3 Conor McGregor 4 Donald Cerrone 5 Justin Gaethje 6 Al Iaquinta 7 Edson Barboza 8 Kevin Lee 9 Anthony Pettis 10 Paul Felder 11 Charles Oliveira 12 Gregor Gillespie 13 Alexander Hernandez 14 Dan Hooker *NR 15 Islam Makhachev -1
WELTERWEIGHT Champion: Kamaru Usman 1 Tyron Woodley 2 Colby Covington 3 Jorge Masvidal 4 Leon Edwards +8 5 Rafael Dos Anjos -1 6 Darren Till -1 7 Stephen Thompson -1 8 Anthony Pettis -1 9 Santiago Ponzinibbio -1 10 Ben Askren -1 11 Robbie Lawler -1 12 Demian Maia -1 13 Neil Magny 14 Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos 15 Vincente Luque
MIDDLEWEIGHT Champion: Robert Whittaker 1 Israel Adesanya (Interim Champion) 2 Yoel Romero 3 Kelvin Gastelum 4 Jack Hermansson 5 Ronaldo Souza 6 Chris Weidman 7 Paulo Costa 8 Derek Brunson 9 Jared Cannonier 10 Ian Heinisch 11 Uriah Hall 12 Brad Tavares 13 Antonio Carlos Junior 14 David Branch 15 Anderson Silva
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Jon Jones 1 Daniel Cormier 2 Thiago Santos 3 Anthony Smith 4 Dominick Reyes 5 (T) Jan Blachowicz 5 (T) Alexander Gustafsson 7 Volkan Oezdemir 8 Corey Anderson 9 Ilir Latifi 10 Glover Teixeira 11 Aleksandar Rakic 12 Johnny Walker 13 Mauricio Rua 14 Nikita Krylov 15 Misha Cirkunov
HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Daniel Cormier 1 Stipe Miocic 2 Francis Ngannou 3 Junior Dos Santos 4 Curtis Blaydes 5 Derrick Lewis 6 Alexander Volkov 7 Alistair Overeem 8 Cain Velasquez 9 Shamil Abdurakhimov +1 10 Blagoy Ivanov +1 11 Walt Harris +3 12 Aleksei Oleinik -3 13 Tai Tuivasa -1 14 Marcin Tybura -1 15 Augusto Sakai
The UFC rankings have been updated following UFC San Antonio! Check out all the changes below! Pound for Pound: Lots of unexpected movement in the pound-for-pound rankings, beginning with Jon Jones slipping to #3 and Khabib Nurmagomedov now sitting at …
The UFC rankings have been updated following UFC San Antonio! Check out all the changes below! Pound for Pound: Lots of unexpected movement in the pound-for-pound rankings, beginning with Jon Jones slipping to #3 and Khabib Nurmagomedov now sitting at #2 behind AKA teammate Daniel Cormier, who remains at #1. Moving up in this week’s […]
Leon Edwards believes Jorge Masvidal is looking for every way possible to avoid a grudge match with him. The story behind Edwards and Masvidal is well-documented. Edwards and Masvidal competed in separate bouts at UFC London back in March. “Rocky…
Leon Edwards believes Jorge Masvidal is looking for every way possible to avoid a grudge match with him. The story behind Edwards and Masvidal is well-documented. Edwards and Masvidal competed in separate bouts at UFC London back in March. “Rocky” defeated Gunnar Nelson, while “Gamebred” knocked out Darren Till. Backstage, Edwards and Masvidal exchanged words […]
We had a great night of fights this past weekend (Sat. July 20, 2019). Though the first nine went to a decision, the next three in a row were stopped in less than one round’s time combined. Then, we had a five-round main event between two of the sport’s elite. Leon “Rocky” Edwards nullified really […]
We had a great night of fights this past weekend (Sat. July 20, 2019). Though the first nine went to a decision, the next three in a row were stopped in less than one round’s time combined. Then, we had a five-round main event between two of the sport’s elite. Leon “Rocky” Edwards nullified really everything Rafael dos Anjos attempted and won 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46 against the former UFC lightweight champion.
Dana White said he uses “RDA” as a gauge to see how good guys are, and Edwards passed with flying colors. At just 27-years-old, Edwards is really coming into his own. His striking is so technically sound, as well as tactically efficient. Just think, how good is he going to be when he’s 30 to 31-years-old?
We had a couple of outcomes we didn’t expect, like Andrei Arlovski winning all three rounds against “Big” Ben Rothwell. Arlovski looked incredible, like a completely reinvented version of himself. He started fighting more technically after losing five fights in a row, being finished in four of them, but in this fight, he really put it all together.
At one point we thought Arlovski was done. His chin was gone (so we thought) and everyone assumed he should retire. He proved all his doubters wrong. His last three knockout losses came against Francis Ngannou, Alistair Overeem, and Stipe Miocic; three of the best in the world who knock out most of their opponents. Arlovski is continuing to put his game together at 40-years-old. Aside from those three, he hasn’t been knocked out since 2011.
As for the next matchups to make, we’ve made five that may pique your interest. Where do the winners go from here? Where do the losers go from here? Continue reading to see an in-depth breakdown of the fights on Saturday, and who these elite fighters could possibly be matched up with next.
Alex Caceres (15-12) 1 NC vs. Sean O’Malley (10-0)
Alex “Bruce Leeroy” Caceres had a very good performance Saturday night. His striking has always been kind of wacky, but he has now fine-tuned it and added some real beautiful footwork. It was a real work of art to watch. His performance could be described as what looked like a mix between Dominick Cruz and Sean O’Malley.
The latter just so happens to be the fight that makes sense. “Sugar” was pulled from his most recent matchup once again by USADA for a tainted supplement, which is incredibly unfortunate because watching him fight Marlon Vera would’ve been great to see. Of course, Caceres would have to drop back down to bantamweight, where he hasn’t fought since 2015.
However, he did have success in that division, and even handed Sergio Pettis his first defeat via submission (rear-naked choke) at the end of their back-and-fourth three-round battle. You may be thinking, why make this fight? “Bruce Leeroy” is 15-12 and O’Malley is 10-0. People thought the same thing when Caceres was 9-5 going in to fight the 10-0 Pettis. The way these two fight would coincide so well.
Their footwork, the upper body movement, striking ability, elusiveness, and each of their abilities on the feet. Caceres also fought to a five-round split decision against lethal striker and Taekwondo black belt Yair Rodriguez. A fight many thought he could’ve won. Don’t let his record fool you. Caceres is also very good on the ground. He’s better offensively than defensively, but this fight would be very interesting no matter where it goes.
Dan Hooker (19-8) vs. Charles Oliveira (27-8) 1 NC
Dan Hooker looked amazing last night, as usual, as he KO’d “The Texecutioner” James Vick in round one. “The Hangman” is really starting to come into his own as well, and has for a while now. He’s a straight-up finisher! It’s insane that he used to make the featherweight limit, and never missed weight. At 6′ with a 75” reach, he’s even big for a lightweight, he could probably do well at welterweight in all seriousness.
“The Hangman” has some serious power too, and has knockout wins in the UFC with a head kick (Hatsu Hioki), knee (Ross Pearson and Jim Miller), elbow (Ian Entwistle), and punches (Gilbert Burns and James Vick), only one of which was a TKO. All five others were stone-cold knockouts. Hooker also has a great ground game, as he’s showcased twice in the UFC thus far, winning two fights via submission (guillotine). He holds a 9-1-3 record in kickboxing and was a four-time MMA champion before joining the UFC.
In the beginning of Hooker’s UFC career, he went 3-3 at featherweight. Since returning to lightweight, “The Hangman” has gone 5-1 with four KO’s and a guillotine choke to his credit, with that lone loss being to 25-3 professional kickboxer Edson Barboza; a fight he took immense amounts of damage in and showed off his toughness, before being stopped halfway through round three. That’s what happens when you try to strike with Barboza.
Charles Oliveira would be a great test to see where each guy is at. Hooker just KO’d the No. 15-ranked lightweight in the world, he will surely be a top 15 guy now, and “Du Bronx” is ranked at No. 11. Both guys are approaching their prime at 29-years-old. Oliveira is on his first-ever five-fight win streak inside the UFC.
He’d won four in a row before, but not until his last fight had he been on a five-fight win streak, which he did by scoring his first knockout win inside the Octagon at UFC Rochester over Nik Lentz. Oliveira’s dimensions are similar to Hooker. He’s a couple of inches shorter with a 74” reach, and has some beautiful Muay Thai of his own. This fight would be absolute fireworks, and one of them would almost certainly get finished.
Hooker only has one decision win, which was in 2011. Oliveira only has two decision wins, the last of which was in 2014.
Greg Hardy (5-1) vs. Walt Harris (13-7) 1 NC
This fight is very exciting for many reasons. Greg Hardy got his fifth professional MMA victory last night over a skilled wrestler with good striking, who’s every bit as big as himself, Juan Adams. The fight started out with the two trading stiff jabs. Before too long, Adams shot for a takedown, Hardy stuffed it and just threw tons of shots to the side of Adams’ head. Adams didn’t move when instructed to do so after several warnings, thus resulting in the fight being stopped.
Some had an issue with the stoppage. However, had Adams complied with the referee, it’d make for a valid argument. But he didn’t after being warned more than once. Hardy is coming into his own in front of us all. He quickly assumed a 3-0 amateur record from the end of 2017 to early 2018, and before the end of 2018 assumed a 3-0 professional record. The “Prince of War” has gone 2-1 inside the UFC thus far, with his only loss via DQ in his UFC debut. Since then, he’s gone 2-0 with two first-round knockouts.
A fight with Walt Harris would be awesome because, well, they’re both incredible athletes that were very successful in their sport of choice. Not to mention they’re both huge. Hardy is 6’5” with an 80” reach, and Harris is 6’5” with an 81” reach. The NBA asked Harris to come out for tryouts, but he declined in order to focus on an MMA career. “The Big Ticket” had a good start to his MMA career, but a very rocky start to his UFC career. He assumed a 6-1 record with his only loss via decision in just his second fight to Chris Barnett, who was 6-1 at the time.
Harris lost his UFC debut via unanimous decision, and lost his next one via TKO before being released from the promotion. He got a win in Titan FC right after, and before the end of the year was back in the UFC. Harris was now 7-3, looking for his first UFC victory. He would again lose under the bright lights. The UFC decided to give him another chance, despite being 0-3 in the promotion, and it was the right choice.
We got to see Harris get his first octagon victory over Cody East. The excitement of the win wouldn’t last long, however, as he lost his next fight, falling to 8-5. Harris was now 1-4 in the UFC, and it wasn’t looking too great for him. The UFC didn’t cut him though, and he racked up back-to-back knockouts to improve his record to 10-5. Derrick Lewis was supposed to fight Fabricio Werdum at UFC 216, however, on the day of the event, Lewis was forced out of the bout with a back injury. Harris was scheduled to fight Mark Godbeer that night and was asked to step in to fight Werdum, rather than Godbeer.
He jumped on the opportunity and lost the fight early in round one via submission (armbar). The fight with Godbeer was rescheduled, and they fought less than a month later at UFC 217. Harris was looking great in the fight, which he was certainly winning, but then got disqualified toward the end of round one. “The Big Ticket” has since looked better than ever, he’s 4-0 in his last four, though one of those wins was overturned to a No Contest considering a failed drug test, which was a split decision win over Andrei Arlovski.
This would’ve been the biggest win of Harris’ career if it hadn’t been overturned. It was an uneventful fight, but nonetheless is a great name to have on your resume. His last two wins were a combined minute and two seconds, and he was awarded Performance Of The Night in those last two outings. Both of these guys are incredible athletes. They’re strong, powerful, and they can move very well, especially considering how big they are.
An interesting fact, as professionals, they have a combined 18 wins, all 18 are knockouts. The only reason this fight wouldn’t be perfect right now is because of Harris’ experience over Hardy, but that doesn’t mean he’d beat the ex-NFL star. Harris and Hardy’s wins Saturday night together were a combined 57 seconds. This would be a great fight, fingers crossed it gets signed!
Tyron Woodley (19-4-1) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (29-12)
Both of these guys lost their last fights over the course of five round battles, and pretty convincingly too. Woodley hasn’t fought since he lost his belt to Kamaru Usman at UFC 235, dos Anjos has fought twice since then, going 1-1. The former UFC lightweight champion was coming off a submission win over Kevin Lee going into his fight with Leon Edwards, but didn’t do quite as well Saturday night.
Edwards was too long and rangy, and too technical for dos Anjos. The pace of dos Anjos could pose some threats to the former UFC welterweight champion, as Woodley’s always had some issues with guys that can smother him, and that’s what “RDA” does best. However, Woodley can land that bomb on anyone on any given night, and it’s all over. With as much as dos Anjos comes forward, throwing all eight limbs, that’s certainly a possibility.
Woodley wants a title shot when he comes back, but with the way welterweight is, that’s not going to happen. We already have Jorge Masvidal in line, as well as Leon Edwards now, and not to mention Colby Covington if he gets past Robbie Lawler. This fight could be the main event to a fight night or an ESPN card like dos Anjos’ last three fights.
The 3rd degree BJJ black belt in dos Anjos and the NCAA Division I wrestling of Woodley, mixed up with Woodley’s one-punch power, and dos Anjos’ volume and striking ability, would be a very interesting fight.
Jorge Masvidal (34-13) vs. Leon Edwards (18-3)
I think we all hope it’s only a matter of time before this fight gets signed. Of course, Masvidal said he won’t fight anyone aside from Conor McGregor or the champion (Kamaru Usman), but why not make this fight for a No. 1 contender? Let’s wait and see what happens with Covington versus Lawler. If Covington wins, he gets the next title shot considering he was the UFC interim welterweight champion and never lost the title. If Lawler beats Covington, give Masvidal the shot.
If not, set up Masvidal versus Edwards for a title eliminator. It makes all the sense in the world. Both are knocking on the door for a title shot. But there’s still someone in front of them both, and there’s an interesting, sellable history between the two. Edwards picked dos Anjos apart for the entire fight last night, but would he be able to do the same to Masvidal? “Gamebred” is three inches shorter than “Rocky”, but has the same reach at 74”. Both of these guys are very well-versed mixed martial artists that prefer to strike.
Masvidal is certainly more dangerous, but that doesn’t mean he’s the better fighter. Edwards may be able to outpoint him like he’s done to just about everyone he’s fought. We’ve seen from guys like Georges St-Pierre and Kamaru Usman how effective winning rounds dominantly and consistently is. With the way Masvidal’s been fighting, it’d be great to see him at his best for at least a couple more years.
As far as Edwards goes, we have a while before we see what he’ll entirely be capable of, as he gets better and better each fight. Hopefully, the UFC makes this fight happen, no matter what they have to do to talk Masvidal into it. Or, perhaps, maybe Masvidal does end up getting the title shot, and wins the belt, and defends it against Edwards? There are so many things that are possible in the months and years to come, that’s one of the many things that makes MMA so great.
