Can Leon Edwards have a long reign as Champ??

Mesos

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I am Leon Edwards fan and supported him way before he won the belt. Always saw alot of potential in his abilities, he proved himself against Usman when he took him down and almost subbed him 1st round. And of course with the beautifully timed kick in the last round.

With that being said, the welterweight division has some tough guys. Usman is a live dog in the rematch and you always have Colby too who is a threat to everyone on division. Khamzat there too but he probably cant make the weight for much longer.


20220822edwards2.jpg

How Long will Leon reign as Champ?
 
He beats Usman in the rematch.
Kazmat moves up to MW.
Shavkat loses to Mangey.
Colby goes to WWE.
If this all happens, maybe.
 
If he can get through Usman again and Khamzat then possibly. Shavkat has been tearing through the division fairly quickly as well and beating him might not be an easy feat either if he keeps finishing his opponents the way he has.
 
He's gonna lose the rematch.

BUT if he does pull off another shocker than I see him losing to Khamzat.

However, Khamzat might miss weight and because of it Leon might have to defend against Islam (who has stated in the past he intends on going up to 170lbs).

I don't see Leon beating Islam. Matter of fact, out of Usman, Khamzat, and Islam, I feel like Islam would be the worst matchup for Leon.

Then there's always Shavkhat....
 
Usman is a live dog in the rematch
Live dog? Usman is a massive favourite in the trilogy.

Usman -375
Edwards +290


I am Leon Edwards fan and supported him way before he won the belt. Always saw alot of potential in his abilities, he proved himself against Usman when he took him down and almost subbed him 1st round.

It sounds like you are blinded by your fandom. If Edwards proved that he could take Usman down and was better on the ground than him, then why did he get repeatedly taken down and controlled by Usman in Rounds 2, 3, and 4?

The reason that Usman is a massive favourite in their third fight is if he sticks to his game plan, Edwards would likely need to perfectly land another very low probability strike.

Edwards hasn't shown to be a fighter that can land big shots consistently. In his 15 UFC fights, he has only scored 4 knockdowns.

Furthermore, Edwards likely won't have much of an opportunity to even throw that low probability strike given that Usman can repeatedly take him down and control him like in Rounds 2, 3, and 4.
 
Honestly the Welterweight division is a weight class full of tough matchups specifically for him. He pulled off a great feat getting it done versus Usman but tbh if we're talking about if he can get a string of title defenses together I mean he could but he has a particularly hard road ahead of him. I think an Usman rematch is going to be tough, I think Khamzat is a horriawful match for Leon, I think Gilbert burns also poses some real problems for Leon. Leon's got the heart and the skill but like, stylistically he's sort of in the shark pool a little bit imo.
 
I am Leon Edwards fan and supported him way before he won the belt. Always saw alot of potential in his abilities, he proved himself against Usman when he took him down and almost subbed him 1st round. And of course with the beautifully timed kick in the last round.

With that being said, the welterweight division has some tough guys. Usman is a live dog in the rematch and you always have Colby too who is a threat to everyone on division. Khamzat there too but he probably cant make the weight for much longer.


20220822edwards2.jpg

How Long will Leon reign as Champ?

What he did to Usman was very impressive. I like to see if he lets it go a little more in his next fights. I hope we see that version of him more often when he decides to take risks at the right moment. He obviously has it in him to perform like he did.
 
Welterweight is a really top heavy division right now. Skill for skill, I would put Edwards up there with any of them.

I hope he's really going to open some eyes in the rematch with Usman, I think he'll beat him fairly convincingly at lower altitude..
That being said, even if/when he does, Sherdog will continue to give him zero credit. The narrative will move to "Usman got old" and "Khamzat and Shavkat and any other guy with mat, kat or ov at the end of their name will smesh him."

I don't think anybody at 170 goes unbeaten for long, assuming all the top guys fight each other. Leon is absolutely capable of beating all of them on his day though.
 
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