Leon Edwards is confident his next fight will be for UFC gold.
In the main event of UFC Vegas 21, Edwards is taking on Belal Muhammad. It is Edwards’ first fight since he defeated Rafael dos Anjos in July of 2019. Since then, he has had trouble getting fights due to the pandemic but he will finally make the walk on Saturday.
Although Edwards isn’t fighting a top-10 opponent, he isn’t worried about that. Instead, he knew he just needed to fight.
“It didn’t even matter,” Edwards said at media day. “I feel all these guys anyway in the top 15 are pretty similar. If they’re going to fight me, they’re coming to shoot for takedowns. Khamzat is a wrestler. Belal is similar. He’s got a wrestling background. Once Khamzat fell out for the third time, I thought, ‘I’m not waiting again for another rescheduled fight. Let’s go.’ Belal stepped up. The first option obviously (was) Colby Covington. The UFC came to me and said, ‘Would you fight him?’ I said yes. They went to him. He said no. We went down the list. Everyone was either injured or turned the fight down. Belal stepped up.”
Edwards enters the fight on an eight-fight winning streak and remains confident he will get a title shot with a win.
“(It’s) about time. That was my ninth win in a row. I’m focused on winning Saturday, I’m not really focusing on a title shot or what’s next,” Leon Edwards said. “I’m focused on Belal Muhammad. If I go out and lose to him, then all this goes away. I’m 100 percent focused on Belal Muhammad. After this, I’ll sit down with my team, with Dana, and we’ll go from there.”
In order to get the title shot, Leon Edwards will need to have an impressive performance on Saturday.
