UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards has a big fight ahead against Colby Covington at UFC 296 in December, but he’s revealed he also has his eye on fighting for the middleweight title at UFC 300 in April of next year in a bid to become a double-champ.
If everything goes according to plan for Edwards that would likely mean he’d be fighting the winner of the upcoming Sean Strickland vs. Dricus du Plessis fight at UFC 297, which takes place in January, and he sees either as a great match-up for him.
“Any of them two would be great to fight,” Edwards said of Strickland and du Plessis. “I’m big myself so, I feel like that would be perfect. Going out there and becoming double champ, the first ever from the U.K. anyway. To do it, that’s definitely one of my goals. It’s in the cards for sure.
“Next April would be perfect, to be honest. The division right now there’s nobody that’s exciting. To go out there and do that, that would be perfect. UFC 300, UFC 300, putting me on that card would be massive. Let’s see.”
Of course none of this would be possible if he doesn’t beat Colby Covington first, and that’s certainly far from an easy fight.
And meanwhile welterweight contenders like Belal Muhammad, who is currently on a 10-fight unbeaten run, and Shavkat Rakhmonov, who has won all five of his UFC fight so far and is 17-0 overall in his career will no doubt strongly protest that Edwards should stay at 170lbs to defend his title.
The UFC will be looking to put on attention-grabbing fights at UFC 300 however, and with Conor McGregor’s return apparently delayed until the summer and lightweight champion Islam Makhachev also potentially not being able to compete due to Ramadan, that means they may end up having to end up getting creative with their match-making.
