Det har vart en del skitsnack fram och tillbaka mellan Leon Edwards och Donald Cerrone inför deras match på UFC Singapore i helgen. Edwards, som vann en domsslutsseger efter femroderskriget, berättar att stridsyxan nu är begravd.
“The buildup to the fight, I wasn’t talking sh*t, I was just saying he’s an older guy and that’s all I was saying,”
“He took it personal and said he’s going to be angry and blah, blah, blah, but it is what it is. To go out there and face him in the fifth round, I was just talking to him and said, ‘You said I would slow down in the fifth round and you were gonna pick the pace up in the fifth round. Well, now what you doin’?’ So I was just having fun in the fifth round talking to him.”
“After the fight I told him I respected him and he’s a legend of the game and it was an honor for me to fight him.”
Edwards hade aldrig tidigare gått fem ronder och det var oklart hur han skulle hantera detta mot en sådan erfaren fighter som Cerrone, men det slutade som bekant bra för 26 åringen. Edwards ger sig själv 7/10 i betyg och drar bort poäng för att han inte lyckades avsluta Cerrone inom tidsramen, men han var samtidigt glad att kunna bevisa för tvivlarna att det inte var något fel på hans kondition.
“My game plan was to come in there and get the finish, but I also wanted to prove that I can go five rounds, so I was kind of fighting in my head on what to do,”
“‘Cowboy,’ he’s very tough and to go out there and face such a legend like ‘Cowboy’ and to go in there and defeat him, when [people say] I slow down in the later rounds and to defeat him in the later rounds, it feels good.”
Direkt efter matchen blev Edwards tillfrågad vem han vill möta i nästa match och svaret blev då att han redan hade en annan veteran i siktet, Jorge Masvidal. Den 10-i-topp rankade utmanaren har för närvarande ingen match bokad och detta vet Edwards om. Han hoppas de kan mötas på hans hemmaplan i Birmingham, England.
“At the time, he was No. 6 in the rankings and I was going down in the rankings and everyone else was matched up, so why not take out another old gun?”
“Masvidal, he’s been around again, a long time, so why not go in there and take him out?
“To bring the UFC back to Birmingham as well, headline billing me and him, have Tom Breese and my brother Fabian on the bill. It would be amazing.”
