Leon Edwards successfully defended his welterweight title against Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 and proved to everyone that his knockout win wasn’t a lucky shot. Even before defending the title, Dana White announced that Colby Covington will face the winner of the Edwards vs Usman trilogy bout.
Rocky seemed to be unhappy with the promotion giving Chaos another title shot and as a result, there have been no updates or an expected timeframe regarding when the British welterweight champion will defend his belt next.
Neil Magny addresses Leon Edwards’ next bout delay choice
Welterweight contender Neil Magny sat down for an interview with Middle Easy. While speaking in this interview, Magny broke down the reasoning behind Leon Edwards delaying his title defense. The Haitian Sensation explained in detail that Rocky wants a long break because his path to the title was very tough. However, he disagreed with Leon delaying his title defense and said that a fighter shouldn’t relax after reaching the top.
“I haven’t been there yet, so this is all hypothetical: in my perspective, I would think that when you become a champion, when you become ranked top 10, top five, top whatever it is, when you reach those new markets in your life, in your career, it’s not, whoa, I made it and you kick my feet up and relax kind of thing. It’s like, hell yeah, I made it. And then you look up, it’s like, cool, there’s more work to be done kind of thing.”
“When I look at Leon, I think he’s more so in the mindset or position where it’s like, hell yeah, I’m a champ, I made it’ and that’s the highest mountain he was trying to climb. He’s not looking at the next mountain necessarily is the vibe that he gives off when I look at him in his demeanour.”
Why did Leon Edwards choose to delay his fight?
The UFC planned to book a main event fight between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington for the welterweight title at UFC London in July. However, Rocky has shown no intentions of fighting in front of his hometown. In an interview with Sky Sports, Edwards revealed the reason why he rejected the offer of fighting in July.
Leon Edwards said that if the UFC offers him an absurd amount of money then only will they be able to convince him to fight in London. He also added that his ideal time to fight would be at the end of the year and is targeting the Abu Dhabi card as he wants to nurse his injuries.
Rocky is taking a slippery slope by delaying his next fight as there is a high possibility that UFC could book an interim title bout if he cannot step inside the octagon for the October card in Abu Dhabi.
