SAN ANTONIO – Leon Edwards said after his impressive UFC on ESPN 4 victory over Rafael dos Anjos that he wants his grudge match with Jorge Masvidal next.
There are some complicating factors in this.
Colby Covington fights Robbie Lawler next month at UFC on ESPN 5. A Lawler upset could put Masvidal into a title fight with welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. But a Covington win would very likely put him in the title shot, meaning Masvidal would be free to face someone else.
And Edwards believes that a fight between him and Masvidal, with whom he got into a backstage altercation in March at UFC London, would be exactly the fight to prove his point.
Unlike most of the fight world, Edwards said during his UFC on ESPN 4 post-fight scrum that he was not at all impressed with Masvidal’s five-second flying-knee knockout of Ben Askren at UFC 239.
“Who has Masvidal beat?” Edwards said. “He beat Ben Askren, Ben Askren has fought nobody. He got a close victory against Robbie (Lawler). Apart from that I couldn’t tell another person who’s he beat that’s a big name. He went to China or wherever it was and stacked a 9-0 record, came to the UFC, and then talked a lot of (expletive), and then he got to No. 5 above me, which is weird.”
That clearly galled Edwards, whose win over former lightweight champ dos Anjos was his eighth in a row and 10th in his past 11. The eight-fight winning streak is second longest at welterweight to Usman’s 10.
“I’m on an eight-fight win streak now and was No. 11, that’s crazy. That’s second most to world champion,” Edwards said. “That’s madness. That shows that it’s not about fights or technique, and it’s not about winning. It’s about talking trash on social media. That’s what gets you up there.”
Not only was Edwards not impressed by Masvidal, but he doesn’t think Masvidal could run over Askren again if he tried.
“I believe Masvidal is an amateur. He has beaten nobody that I can say that he is amazing,” Edwards said. “He did a flying knee against Ben; Ben is an amateur. He’s slow, he’s old, he is a grappler. He’s taken big confidence from it. It’s one of those things that, if they fought 10 out of 10 times, that would never happen again. I believe I am better than Masvidal anywhere in the fight, and I’ll get an opportunity to prove it.”
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