If Jorge Masvidal can win at UFC 287, Leon Edwards is prepared to finally settle their score.
In the co-main event of UFC 287, Masvidal faces Gilbert Burns in a pivotal welterweight bout. The bout is critical for Masvidal, who has lost three in a row and finds himself on the precipice of being dropped from the title conversation for good. However, if he wins, those losses won’t matter as much, because the welterweight champion says he’ll give “Gamebred” a title shot.
“For sure. If he goes out there and beats Gilbert, I think that’s the fight to make,” Edwards told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “It’s been a long time, three, four years brewing. Let’s get in there and settle it once and for all and go from there.”
Edwards and Masvidal have a sordid history together, with Masvidal infamously hitting Edwards with “the three piece with the soda” backstage at a UFC event in London in 2019. Afterwards, Edwards repeatedly tried to secure a fight with Masvidal but was brushed aside while Masvidal pursued the ‘BMF’ and welterweight titles. Now that Edwards is welterweight champion though, the tables have turned, and something “Rocky” finds amusing, even if he has his own fight with Kamaru Usman to worry about first.
“It’s fun to see, two, three years ago, they didn’t know who I was,” Edwards said. “Now I’m king of the division. Little old Leon slid in, took it away, and now it’s back in Birmingham, sitting on my table. It’s all good. I’m focused on Usman. He’s the hardest fight in the division. So I’m focused on him, get past him, and from there we’ll see who is next.”
Edwards also noted that he thinks Burns will beat Masvidal, which would make the whole thing moot. That would open the door for another welterweight contender to get the next crack at Edwards title, perhaps someone Edwards has unfinished business with like Belal Muhammad.
Muhammad is currently on a four-fight win streak since a No Contest against Edwards in 2021 due to an accidental eye poke. Since then, Muhammad has repeatedly tried to get another shot at Edwards, even before he became champion, however, “Remember The Name” finds himself in a similar position to Edwards the past few years: on the outside looking in at a title shot. And while one might think that would make Edwards could relate to Muhammad’s struggles, instead the welterweight champion suggests Muhammad get off social media and do the same thing he did: just keep winning.
“Every day I go on social media, there’s something about me that he’s posting. Move on with your life,” Edwards said. “It’s been however long it’s been, just move on. If it was a close fight, I could understand the back and forth, but it wasn’t a close fight until the eye poke. I was literally battering him pillar to post and then the eye poke happened. The way he’s behaving is like it was a tight fight, it was close, and then the eye poke happened and now I’m ducking him. Mate, just move on. Go fight Colby [Covington] or Khamzat [Chimaev] or somebody. Fight to get there.
“That’s what I had to do. No one gave me s***. I got removed from the ranking and everything. I took the hard way. Now I’m here, I’m not just giving you the title shot because you got eye poked. Go carry on fighting, earn it, and when your time comes, your time comes, like mine did.”
Edwards himself will “carry on fighting” when he faces Kamaru Usman in their trilogy bout at UFC 286, on March 18 at the O2 arena in London.
