Leon Edwards knows fans will remember the final minute of the fight when Nate Diaz rocked him.
At UFC 263, Edwards dominated Diaz for 24 minutes as he was piecing up the Stockton native. Yet, with a minute to go, Diaz landed a Stockton slap and then a big shot that rocked Edwards. However, Diaz couldn’t capitalize and because of that, he says it was a decent performance as he got complacent in the final minute.
“It was a decent performance. I could have let my hands go a little bit more. The last round, I got complacent,” Edwards said at the post-fight press conference. “You pay the price. No matter what though, I was not going down no matter what. I had the will to win and I wasn’t going to let Nate take that away from me. Like I said, my will to win is strong. I know what I’ve come from, I know what I’ve been through. I was not going out cause of a shot. It is what it is. He caught me with a nice shot. I got lazy. Paid the price and that’s it.”
Although Edwards never fell to the ground, he says he was rocked but knew he was still in it. He was able to get his legs back rather quickly and ride out the final minute to win a decision.
“I was rocked,” Edwards said. “I wasn’t rocked [enough] to go down to my knees and get ground and pounded out but I felt that. I didn’t know what he hit me with until after the fight. It was a clean shot. Like I said, I got complacent. I thought there’s only a minute and a half left, let’s just go with the flow of the fight and I paid the price. That is a lesson. I’m still learning. I’m 29-years-old and I’m still growing.”
