Leon Edwards, after winning the UFC welterweight title in August 2022, defended the title only once earlier this year in March at the UFC 286 event. Since then, Edwards hasn’t defended the title.
It was a quick rematch for former champion Kamaru Usman as well, which he got in March 2023 after losing it to “Rocky” at UFC 278. At this event, Usman was dominating the fight until the 4th round’s last minute. But gave a serious head kick to stop the “Nigerian Nightmare” dominance. Now Colby Covington is looking to put hands on what Edwards’ got.
Leon Edwards points to the UFC’s alleged favoritism
The UFC Welterweight Champion is all set to defend his title against Colby Covington this weekend for the UFC 296 main event. After winning the bout in March against Kamaru Usman, Leon received rumors of Colby Covington being the next opponent. Edwards always opposed Covington getting the title shot and claimed the UFC president always favored the former interim champion.
Leon Edwards says the UFC "probably" wants Colby Covington to win 👀 #TheMMAHour
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) December 11, 2023
"I think [Donald] Trump wants him to win. I don’t know. None of it matters, right? My whole career’s been the underdog going against the favorite."
▶️ https://t.co/t4udCctCMR pic.twitter.com/DFzbnPEAA0
Once again, the reigning champion Leon Edwards stuck to his statement and told Ariel Helwani at MMA Hour, “I spoke to the UFC, I spoke to everyone, and I don’t know. They brought him in March to weigh in, which was random; I don’t know why.”
Then once again, he made the same statement insisting the favoritism Dana Whites shows Colby Covington.
“He’s got Dana White privilege right, and that’s it. He fought Masvidal; everyone he’s beat in the last five years is retired, right? They’ve all been feeding him these guys on the backend of their careers.”
Covington unleashes a verbal assault on Edwards.
Though Colby seldom comments on how fighters keep saying he is on the priority list of Dana White, this time he made sure that he is playing verbal battle with his opponent until the results are declared in the cage.
Covington gave a warning to Leon Edwards in response, “Yeah, next Saturday in nine days, live on pay-per-view from T-Mobile Arena in the mecca of the fight, Capital World Las Vegas Nevada, you know I’m going to put Leon Scott, I’m going to bring the dog out of me, and I’m going to bring the quitter out of him.”
The 35-year-old also reminded him of his rivalry against Kamaru Usman and compared that the fights Usman fought against Leon Edwards weren’t that prime Kamaru style of fighting. He told the former welterweight champion in prime that he was hungrier for beating than securing the win over anyone.
