Leon's biggest weaknesses is his poor boxing and his willingness to play his opponents game.

[Leon Edwards]

Because Leon is great everywhere he feels no threat in grappling/striking but he ends up getting comfortable playing his opponents game which costs him rounds.

He was never in trouble against belal and he defended everything and reversed Belal but he was happy to play the guard/grappling game.

His second weakness is his poor boxing, he looks clunky when throwing more than single strikes. Leon clearly has power but his boxing is poor.

He also wants to be perfect at everything he sets up his shots but he needs to be more agressive and mean.

 

[Marko Polo]

It’s his loyalty to his coaches

 

[The Siege]

So, Leon is great everywhere, felt no threat, was never in trouble, defended everything and even reversed Belal, yet still lost? Did he just want to lose?

 

[IIIIIIII]

this may be way off base, but there was something i felt after watching this last fight with belal. leon is the kind of fighter where if his game on it's own isn't enough to beat you, he's fine with just settling with a safe loss. even with his corner yelling at him during fights, he has such a serene calmness on his face like he doesn't realize he's in a fight he's losing lol.

it's like to him, if his clean, fancy style of fighting doesn't tko you or finish you, he's fine with looking smooth striking or losing a safe decision on the ground. zero sense of urgency during fights or, "fighting dirty" to get the win by all means. you get none of that mentality from the guy.

 

[rear naked ankle pick]

 

[Dorkman]

View attachment 1055680

The true source of weakness.

 

[Luckyme]

Leon has the skills but seldom pressures. He's too content to point fight to a decision.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

he's weak to pressure and he only fights at one speed. if he can't slow fights down he can't turn it up if he has to. even vs Usman, he didn't turn it up he just happened to land a fight ending strike, but he wasn't actively trying to get after Usman.

 

[Leon Edwards]

So, Leon is great everywhere, felt no threat, was never in trouble, defended everything and even reversed Belal, yet still lost? Did he just want to lose?

Actually yes he reversed Bella many times towards end of rounds but it was too late. There was no urgency.

 

[Leon Edwards]

this may be way off base, but there was something i felt after watching this last fight with belal. leon is the kind of fighter where if his game on it's own isn't enough to beat you, he's fine with just settling with a safe loss. even with his corner yelling at him during fights, he has such a serene calmness on his face like he doesn't realize he's in a fight he's losing lol.

it's like to him, if his clean, fancy style of fighting doesn't tko you or finish you, he's fine with looking smooth striking or losing a safe decision on the ground. zero sense of urgency during fights or, "fighting dirty" to get the win by all means. you get none of that mentality from the guy.

Was bizarre it was also horrible to make him fight us time

 

[The Siege]

Actually yes he reversed Bella many times towards end of rounds but it was too late. There was no urgency.

Wow, why do you think Leon wanted to lose his Championship belt?

 

[Goatenstein]

He didn't willingly play his opponent's game, he was forced to by the superior fighter.

 

[IronGolem007]

Leon's biggest weakness is his mind.

He is not intense vicious enough. "Athletic sparring" mentality vs. "forever looking to finish" mentality.

Totally the opposite of Pereira, who is forever looking to hurt you and get you out of there, decisively, by any means necessary.

 

[arcadeperfect]

this may be way off base, but there was something i felt after watching this last fight with belal. leon is the kind of fighter where if his game on it's own isn't enough to beat you, he's fine with just settling with a safe loss. even with his corner yelling at him during fights, he has such a serene calmness on his face like he doesn't realize he's in a fight he's losing lol.

it's like to him, if his clean, fancy style of fighting doesn't tko you or finish you, he's fine with looking smooth striking or losing a safe decision on the ground. zero sense of urgency during fights or, "fighting dirty" to get the win by all means. you get none of that mentality from the guy.

He's just a safe fighter to begin with. Even when he's in control and winning he's not going to pursue a finish unless it's staring him in the face. He's perfectly content with playing it safe and coasting to a decision, hence why most of his fights aren't fun to watch. The Usman KO blinded a lot of people.

 

[duke_droese]

Why's his boxing weak when Dave is supposed to be a boxing coach and he works with Joby (the "brilliant AJ" guy during the Usyk fight).

 

[Marko Polo]

this may be way off base, but there was something i felt after watching this last fight with belal. leon is the kind of fighter where if his game on it's own isn't enough to beat you, he's fine with just settling with a safe loss. even with his corner yelling at him during fights, he has such a serene calmness on his face like he doesn't realize he's in a fight he's losing lol.

it's like to him, if his clean, fancy style of fighting doesn't tko you or finish you, he's fine with looking smooth striking or losing a safe decision on the ground. zero sense of urgency during fights or, "fighting dirty" to get the win by all means. you get none of that mentality from the guy.

I don’t really think people understand what they’re seeing. For Leon, if he went balls to the wall like people are saying they wanted, that’s him quitting. That’s the easiest thing in the world to do, to stop thinking. He never quit at any point, that’s why he was still able to reverse position and do significant damage in the fifth. He was beaten by a better man on the night and now all of a sudden people are complaining about his style, which granted is very calculated, but it works for him.

 

[IIIIIIII]

I don’t really think people understand what they’re seeing. For Leon, if he went balls to the wall like people are saying they wanted, that’s him quitting. That’s the easiest thing in the world to do, to stop thinking. He never quit at any point, that’s why he was still able to reverse position and do significant damage in the fifth. He was beaten by a better man on the night and now all of a sudden people are complaining about his style, which granted is very calculated, but it works for him.

hm, i see what you're getting at, i just don't agree. going balls to the wall isn't always fighting without thinking. it's sometimes realizing you are about to lose a decision, and that you have to go for broke at some point to hopefully manage a miracle finish. that's what i think lots of people were hoping leon would have done much, much sooner.

he didn't quit as in he kept fighting, but for lots of people not fighting with urgency is in a way quitting without officially doing it. he was like woodley against usman in their first fight. eyes glazed over staring off into space barely conscious that he's in a fight haha. it was the same face on leon.

i do agree with one thing: he was beaten by a better man. at least for that night. a more determined leon would maybe have been a different story.

 

[Marko Polo]

hm, i see what you're getting at, i just don't agree. going balls to the wall isn't always fighting without thinking. it's sometimes realizing you are about to lose a decision, and that you have to go for broke at some point to hopefully manage a miracle finish. that's what i think lots of people were hoping leon would have done much, much sooner.

he didn't quit as in he kept fighting, but for lots of people not fighting with urgency is in a way quitting without officially doing it. he was like woodley against usman in their first fight. eyes glazed over staring off into space barely conscious that he's in a fight haha. it was the same face on leon.

i do agree with one thing: he was beaten by a better man. at least for that night. a more determined leon would maybe have been a different story.

He never fights with urgency. His fights are cerebral and it may look like he’s checking out but his headkick against Usman wasn’t a fluke for me, it’s the product of heart and defiance.

Did you notice Leon start to throw his strikes differently to try to adjust to Belals head movement. He started to throw these weird looping straight punches. If you’re Belal and you see that, you know you’re winning the fight and you’re breaking down the man. Similar to if Leon started just going all out the way a character in a film just decides he’s not going to accept it and gets stronger on the spot to lift the burning log, it just doesn’t happen like that in real life. Both guys are tuned in to what the other one is doing and they don’t want to give an inch. It’s not as simple as just trying harder or just deciding you’re going to be more offensive and be successful. He was already trying to whole fight and I don’t think it’s fair to diminish the guys mentality especially when literally a few fights before he he scored an all time great KO in the face of defeat

 

[KO Shotz]

Leon fights safe & has shitty coaches with terrible gameplans. Leon never has a sense of urgency unless he's hurt.

 

[VinceArch]

Being more aggressive wouldn't hurt Leon, that's for certain. In the past, he was content with fighting to a decision cause he certainly has a speed that is fast enough to hit opponents and get out of the way but once he won the belt, everyone had eyes on him and he didn't evolve and has been figured out. Training with a mindset of looking to take your opponents out ASAP would be beneficial IMO. Even if he's still winning by decision, at least he'll be scored as the aggressor looking to hurt his opponents.