Kamaru Usman understands just how much is riding on Leon Edwards\u2019 performance at UFC 322 because he was in the same exact situation a few months ago.<\/p>\n
Despite winning more rounds than he lost in a pair of back-to-back fights against Edwards between 2022 and 2023, Usman suffered a last-minute knockout loss to Edwards and then dropped a majority decision in their next encounter as he attempted to reclaim his welterweight title. Usman then accepted a short-notice fight against Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight that he nearly won, but ultimately ended up on the wrong end of another majority decision.<\/p>\n
Usman finally got back on track with a dominant showcase against Joaquin Buckley in June, but now Edwards is faced with a similar scenario after he lost the welterweight title to Belal Muhammad and was then submitted by Sean Brady in his next outing. Edwards attempts to stave off a third loss in a row when he faces Carlos Prates on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big one,\u201d Usman told MMA Fighting about Edwards\u2019 upcoming fight. \u201cBecause you don\u2019t really want to drop that many fights like that and not just drop the fights but just being dominated in that way. This one poses a little bit of a different challenge because it\u2019s another striker. That\u2019s primarily not been the area where Leon has struggled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big one because no one wants to drop three in a row. But I think there\u2019s still questions that need to be answered. Can you deal with a grappler that\u2019s going to go in and try to put you down? Unless we get the answers, it\u2019s going to be tough to say how this one is or how this one isn\u2019t because those questions aren\u2019t answered yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards was largely out-grappled in both of his recent losses to Muhammad and Brady so it\u2019s a valid concern that winning at UFC 322 doesn\u2019t necessarily absolve him of those past mistakes.<\/p>\n
Prates is best known as an electric striker with huge knockout power in his hands, but Edwards is arguably one of the best kickboxers to ever compete in the welterweight division. Regardless of the stylistic matchup, Usman knows that doesn\u2019t matter much when you\u2019re staring down three straight losses, which is what Edwards desperately wants to avoid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big one because no one really wants to drop three in a row and of course, no one wants to be finished two out of those three,\u201d Usman said.<\/p>\n
While Edwards has his hands full in a redemption fight, many of the other top welterweights in the division have marquee matchups scheduled over the next two weeks.<\/p>\n
At UFC 322, Sean Brady looks to build off his win over Edwards when he faces undefeated prospect Michael Morales, who is getting a decided step up in competition for his next fight. Meanwhile, former champion Belal Muhammad takes on Ian Machado Garry at UFC Qatar next Saturday in another pivotal matchup for the division.<\/p>\n
Usman has been stumping for himself to get the next title shot against the winner of the UFC 322 main event between Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev, but knows the rest of the division likely gets some clarity once these next two cards are finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to be a top welterweight right now,\u201d Usman said. \u201cThere\u2019s just so many fun matchups, so many fun fights. These guys are really starting to inch their way up to the top of the division. Honestly, I don\u2019t think any one is really in front of the other right now. Because if you look at the landscape, it\u2019s difficult to say Shavkat [Rakhmonov] is in front of Sean Brady and Carlos Prates and Ian Machado Garry, of course he did get the win over [Prates] but it\u2019s difficult to say that. Vice versa with Ian, it\u2019s difficult to say you\u2019re over Michael Morales or Brady and these guys. These guys are kind of bunched up there. You\u2019ve got Michael Morales, Joaquin Buckley as well, you\u2019ve got Sean Brady, you\u2019ve got Ian Garry, you\u2019ve got Carlos Prates.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these guys are there, it\u2019s kind of exciting and I think hopefully after this weekend, some guys kind of separate themselves to where they\u2019re not top tier and there\u2019s a tier below those guys. These guys are a fight or two away and they\u2019re getting the potential next shot. It\u2019s something that I\u2019m keeping my eye on and we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kamaru Usman understands just how much is riding on Leon Edwards\u2019 performance at UFC 322 because he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-283705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}