Din Thomas was in Sean Brady’s corner for his victory over Leon Edwards at UFC Fight Night 255 last weekend in London, and has now come to the conclusion that the former champion isn’t a fighter at heart.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful toward Leon,” Thomas said on the Anthony Smith’s ‘On Paper’ podcast. “I still believe that skill for skill, like his body type and all that, that he was a great champion. He’s a great fighter. He’s still top-five material. But I just don’t think that Leon in his heart is a real true fighter.
“And I say in terms of, like, Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier, like these guys will fight you in a parking lot. I think he’s an athlete. I think he’s a performer. I think he’s creative. I think in the gym, he probably eats up everybody. He’s super magical. I just think when the lights come on and it’s time for him to really fight, despite not being a true fighter, he was still that good.”
Thomas also claimed that by as early as the third round he already knew that Edwards wasn’t going to win after he suddenly switched from his striking gameplan and instead tried to take Brady down.
“When he did that, I got quiet and I looked at John Marquez, the head coach, and said, ‘Did he just try to take Sean down?’” Thomas recalled. “And then when he got reversed, John was like, ‘Man, we could just play checkers and we could literally play chess right now because we don’t need to do anything.’ We just knew at that point, the fight was over. When Leon shot that takedown, he showed his hand that he did not want to be there anymore and that was a wrap.”
