Leon Edwards had the last laugh in his rivalry with Kamaru Usman as he edged their trilogy fight to successfully defend his welterweight title at UFC 286 in London.
Edwards was looking to make the first defence of his welterweight title since winning it against Usman with a last-gasp knockout last August. The London crowd flooded out The O2 arena with chants of “Headshot, dead” in support of the home fighter as the trilogy bout got underway.
Both men were tentative in the opening round but it was Edwards who landed heavy first, hurting Usman with a body kick but he did well to recover moments later. Edwards was putting together his combinations well, but the Brit was warned by referee Herb Dean to not grab the inside of Usman’s glove.
Edwards put together a good combination that staggered Usman but ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ recovered by stunning Edwards with a jab before taking him down for the first time. The back and forth in the second stanza continued as Edwards got back to his feet and landed a hard left hand. Usman was finding his rhythm as he changed levels and secured a good single-leg takedown as the third round got underway.
Referee Herb Dean deducted a point from Edwards as he illegally grabbed the fence whilst Usman was taking him down. Edwards landed a good one down the middle whilst Usman continued to find success with his jab. As the fight went into the championship rounds, Edwards dropped Usman with a leg kick but the Nigerian-American sprung up to his feet straight away.
The fight was neck-and-neck heading into the final round and Edwards attempted his signature head kick, but Usman defended it this time around. Edwards was being encouraged by huge cheers as he continued to put together some crisp combinations. Usman was relentless in his takedown attempts but Edwards defended well and kept the fight standing and saw out the contest before the judges gave him the nod by scores of 48-46, 48, 46 and 47-47.
Edwards said after the fight: “He didn’t get any takedowns and I was defending multiple of his shots. I want to say thank you to him, he’s been a great competitor. I was trying to get the head kick, but fair play to him because he had perfect defence.”
Usman added: “I think I did enough to win but it was close, I’m not done and I’ll see him again. He put on a hell of a gameplan. I’m going to get back to my coaches because I can’t sit out for too long, I start getting antsy.”
What were your thoughts on the trilogy fight between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman? Let us know in the comments section below
Earlier, the highly-anticipated co-main event between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev lived up to its hype as both men went to war for three rounds, but it was former interim champion Gaethje who was given the nod by majority decision.
Gunnar Nelson tapped out Bryan Barberena in the first round whilst Casey O’Neill suffered her professional defeat as she was beaten by Jennifer Maia. And boos echoed out around The O2 arena when Marvin Vettori won a controversial decision against Roman Dolidze in the opening bout of the main card.
The UFC 286 prelims saw Muhammad Mokaev overcome a shoulder and leg injury to tap out Jafel Filho with less than a minute left of their flyweight fight. Jack Shore won his featherweight debut by tapping out Makwan Amirkhani in the second round with a rear-naked choke. Chris Duncan won a hard-fought decision against Omar Morales whilst Sam Patterson was brutally knocked out in his UFC debut by Yanal Ashmoz.
Lerone Murphy was put through the paces by promotional debutant Gabriel Santos, but the Mancunian did enough to edge out a split decision. Birmingham’s Jake Hadley picked up an impressive knockout win against flyweight veteran Malcolm Gordon as he dispatched the Canadian in just 61-seconds with a body shot.
Jai Herbert and Ludovit Klein fought to a majority draw after Herbert was deducted a point in the final round due to multiple groin strikes. There were also good wins Christian Leroy Duncan, Joanne Wood and Veronica Hardy earlier on in the evening.
