Despite an ongoing rivalry with Jorge Masvidal it seems that Leon Edwards is now ready to turn his attention away from fighting him after his opponent was forced out of their UFC 269 bout next month due to an injury suffered in training.
“I don’t believe so,” Edwards told ESPN when asked if the fight would be rebooked. “I’m going up [and] he’s going that way (down), so I can’t see when there’s going to be a time where that fight makes sense. I’m going to keep winning. I’m going on to world championships and competing at a higher level. He’s declining, you know? So it’s going to be difficult now for us to get into a position where the fight makes sense. We’ll see.”
As things stand the two men’s career trajectories certainly do appear to be starkly different, with Edwards currently on a 10-fight unbeaten run, while Masvidal has lost two fights in a row, but ‘Gamebred’ still remains a big draw for the UFC, while ‘Rocky’ has yet to take off in that regard.
However, Edwards still holds a grudge with Masvidal for their backstage clash a few years ago in London and so he’s not willing to rule out the possibility they will eventually fight, he doesn’t believe that his rival is going to stick around long enough for them to finally settle their differences in the Octagon.
“It’s possible because like I said, that [backstage scuffle] left a bad taste in my mouth. There’s bad blood there forever, so [it’s] possible. We’ll see. I’m focusing on being a world champion, focusing on achieving my goal. He’s doing what he’s doing. I feel he’ll probably retire, as well. I reckon next year, he’ll probably retire. That’s how I feel.”
So, for now it appears that the No.3 ranked Edwards has his heart set on fighting Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title next, and it’s going to take a lot to convince him otherwise.
“There’s no one else. The only reason I was making a stop off was because of Jorge and the history we had and the background to build the fight. That would get me up in the morning to want to work hard and want to go perform well. There’s literally no one else. So like I said, I truly believe that I deserve a title shot. I worked my way up, I’ve fought everyone, I’ve been matched up with unranked guys, guys ranked way below me and I still took the fight. I said yes every time they phoned and now I feel like I truly deserve what I’ve earned and worked for.”
