Leon's Corner Also Failed

[Edward Henry Greb]

Aside from Leon falling into his usual reactive pattern, his corner utterly failed him as well.

Were before, against Usman, Leo's corner was good, saying, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself, get out there!", which revitalized Leon — this time his entire corner was panic-city. Shrieking and screaming.

A fighter doesn't need a panicky corner, but a solid one. The way his entire corner was losing it was a big part of the problem.

Leon needed a cool-headed, strong, professional force force in his corner, but what he had was a disarray of shrieking panic. Not a good look.

 

[Washad]

His corner wasnt gonna do shit either way. He had already checked out after the first round and going limp after that slam definitely sealed it. Nothing was going to bring him back, his eyes, just dead.

 

[HHJ]

Leon needed a cool-headed, strong, professional force force in his corner, but what he had was a disarray of shrieking panic. Not a good look.

He isnt responding to the cool headedness. So they revert to that because he's fuckin blowin it.

 

[Kompromat]

Come on Leon man!!! Seriously, this isnt what I expect to hear in champs corner when he is clearly losing. Feels like they all know he is not that good, and just pumping him to produce yet another miracle shot, so no point going into fight specifics

 

[CrimsonFan]

I think Leons corner should have adapted a different game plan for rounds 4 and 5.

He was having success when he was being offensive with his grappling. He was not doing well backing up trying to stay on his feet. Why not press forward and take Belal down before he inevitably does the same thing to you? I dunno from my couch it seemed like what I would do if I were Leon. And I think that's what is going to beat Belal, someone who takes him down and brings the fight to him.. not letting him do his thing.

 

[Pechan]

His corner can't fight for him, he needed to wake up and they were trying to wake him up, this was all on Leon.

 

[Dionysian]

If he KOd Belal in the 5th the internet would be playing his coaches speech behind inspirational music. It was pretty much exactly the same as the Kamaru fight... a fight he was losing and his coach gave a balls to the wall speech before the 5th saying he needed a finish.

Just shows that all that matters is the end result. His coach would be legendary if he landed another KO. Instead you're framing it as his coach let him down.

 

[IIIIIIII]

what is it with leon and so many last minute dramatic events? the usman head kick. nate's fifth round comeback, and tonight at the end. yeah, i agree with a lot of you. he gets into cruise control and has that seal of fate look on his face like he's destined to his perceived fate. woodley looked the same way when he lost to usman the first time.

 

[Tweak896]

Corner did the same shit they did in Usman fight, same situation. Leon doesn't have some magical 5th round finish ability, all that was just glorified from the Usman fight. That was a once in a career move to be able to pull that off. Not to mention after it happened, none of his opponents are going to take it easy on Leon at the end knowing what could happen.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Hot take: His corner did nothing different. They got praised against Usman because Leon actually pulled the win out, but let's not act like the corner actually fired him up and he came out that round blasting. He was still his lethargic, slow playing self UNTIL the headkick. The advice they gave was not technical or helpful in any way except for PR purposes after the KO happened.

This time around, they did the same exact "motivational," devoid-of-technical-advice screaming, and they got the result that non helpful advice usually would get. Nothing. Granted, Leon did need a kick in the ass, but doing it like 3-4 rounds in a row here should have shown he needed something different

 

[The XL]

Leon is a frontrunner. He broke against Usman and got lucky with a hail mary kick. If Colby fought with any pace or pressure he'd have done the same thing too. Belal to his credit went in there and got the job done.

 

[arcadeperfect]

They were praying for another hail mary like against Usman. All that motivational movie crap is simply that; crap.

 

[JustforBROCK]

For whatever reason Leon Edwards has a problem responding well in big moments. That seems to be the only real weakness that he has the mental game. You had a brief moment after the hail Mary went against Usman where he looked like The confident fighter that he should be.... Last night as many people have stated after round 1 he had checked out. That fight look like Usman beating Woodley. And that sucks because Muhammad is a very mid-level fighter and will likely lose the title in his first defense.

 

[animepro]

CMON LEON MON!!!!!

 

[PaddyO'malley]

Leon prolly nah unnuhstand him coach accent shoulda throw me in fam mans wulda had bro fired up ready fi buck di opps mans nvr do dat tho Belal American ting treason

 

[DrTrouble]

Nah Leon failed himself by getting outbound by Belal then taken down thr same way every rd.

Nothing his corner had to say would've changed anything. Lighting wasn't gonna strike again.

 

[HHJ]

His corner is not to blame at all. We know Leon just gives up on himself. His corner can only do so much to help. Talking to him calmly as he is about to lose his title is not going to help, was not helping, so might as well yell at him.

 

[TKing]

They went full on desperation mode, can't really blame them as Leon would just stare off and ignore everything once the round started.

At one point they moved into where he was staring off trying to talk to him and he looked away, when I saw that I knew he was done. Even after the fight he would quickly look at Belal and then look away, he got defeated in multiple ways.