As soon as he walks to the Octagon cage to face Sean Brady at UFC London 2025, Leon Edwards will do one thing he has not executed since 2015. For the primary time in his final 14 fights, Edwards will try and bounce again from a loss.
As soon as the longest-reigning champion within the UFC, Edwards’ 13-fight unbeaten streak ended at UFC 304 by the hands of Belal Muhammad. In his dwelling nation, Edwards was taken down 9 occasions and managed for over 12 minutes en path to a lopsided resolution loss that value him the welterweight title.
With Edwards’ momentum halted, he now receives the unenviable activity of welcoming a gatekeeper-like function to the 170-pound belt. Contemporary off consecutive wins over former title challengers, Brady can turn out to be the subsequent challenger with a win over Edwards in London.
Regardless of Edwards’ extended success, MMA is extra recency-biased than any sport. His lackluster loss to Muhammad is all that followers keep in mind, resulting in Brady being listed as the favourite.
Sean Brady’s benefits
Despite the fact that Edwards has only one loss in his final 14 fights, the combat went in a approach Brady may simply emulate. Edwards, a robust counter-striker, wilted underneath Muhammad’s grappling-based stress, a technique Brady typically employs.
Nonetheless, till confirmed in any other case, Muhammad has seemed like one of the best welterweight on this planet over the past three years. Saying Brady can efficiently mimic the champion’s sport plan is one factor, however really executing it’s one other. In beating Edwards, Muhammad prolonged his longest unbeaten streak within the division, which features a TKO win over Brady.
But, whereas Brady won’t be on the stage of Muhammad as a fighter, he actually is on par with him as a grappler. Brady can not match Muhammad’s hanging, but when he can get Edwards down, he has displayed elite high stress, management and submission sport in his arsenal. As soon as on his again, Edwards is liable to being managed, typically missing the urgency to return to his toes.
It is not going to come simple for Brady, however with the way in which Edwards simply misplaced, there may be purpose to consider the Philadelphia native can depart London as the brand new No. 1 welterweight contender.
How Leon Edwards can pull off the upset
As dangerous as his final outing was, there may be purpose to consider Edwards’ loss to Muhammad was merely a one-off. Traditionally, he has fared nicely towards wrestlers, with solely Muhammad and Kamaru Usman — two of one of the best fighters in divisional historical past — having succeeded towards him. Quite a bit could be mentioned about Brady and his accomplishments, however evaluating him to these two former champions is hard.
At 33, there may be little proof suggesting Edwards is on the decline. In his three fights earlier than going through Muhammad, “Rocky” solely allowed 11 complete takedowns on 37 makes an attempt between two fights towards Usman and one towards Colby Covington.
On the toes, Brady is as one-dimensional as a contemporary UFC title challenger could be. His hanging is above common, however he has not proven something resembling any type of a menace in that regard to a world-class striker like Edwards. Simply three fights in the past, Brady was picked aside and completed by Muhammad, who earned his first TKO victory since 2016.
If Brady can get ahold of Edwards, the combat will probably be solely inside his realm. But, the 6-foot-2 Edwards will combat with a four-inch top and two-inch attain benefit, an element that would pay dividends in one of these matchup. All of Brady’s finishes within the Octagon have been by submission, one thing no person has ever executed to Edwards.
Though it won’t look like it on paper, a win for Edwards could be an upset by definition, as long as he can keep upright most of the time — one thing he has traditionally executed towards non-championship caliber opponents — Edwards may make the percentages look silly.
