“I Still Remember That First Round”: Alexander Volkanovski Makes Decisive Pick for Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman Trilogy at UFC 286

The fans are already holding their breath for the trilogy bout between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman. Fans and fellow MMA fighters have already taken sides. The two will square off against each other for their trilogy bout on March 18 at UFC 286. The bout will be held at the O2 Arena in London. No UFC fan could forget the rematch between the two at UFC 278, where ‘Rocky’ earned the most unexpected victory, which made him the welterweight champion. The match resulted in ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ losing his belt to Edwards.

At the moment, the 35-year-old is working from his fingers to his bones to win his title back. Nonetheless, ‘Rocky’ is also ready to go the distance to defend his title and reign longer on the welterweight throne. Edwards has a record of 20 victories and three losses, and Usman has 20 victories and two losses. This makes it impossible to predict a winner easily. However, at the moment, the featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, has mentioned whose side he is on. However, ‘The Great’ also admitted that it’s 50-50 for him.

Alexander Volkanovski believes in Leon Edwards

Volkanovski and Robert Whittaker were talking with Niko Pajarillo ahead of UFC 286 in London. When Pajarillo asked ‘The Great’ who he thought would win, the Australian fighter answered “I still remember that first round, the altitude, they were talking about fighting at a higher altitude…his confidence, Leon I’m talking about his confidence, is going through the roof, knowing that Usman had a good first round.”

He continued, “He took Usman down, who had a good first round and he’s still got the care, when he thought ‘I won’t get tired this time. I’m fighting that altitude, all that type of stuff. So I feel like this, I’m almost 50-50 on it. Even though I know that Usman was doing so great into that KO but I think Leon can definitely get the job done well.“

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The featherweight champ made it clear that he took the side of Edwards after keenly observing the rematch bout between the two.

The most unexpected victory of ‘Rocky’

It was ‘Rocky’s biggest dream to reach the welterweight title, but to earn the belt, he had to fight against the then-welterweight king, Kamaru Usman. When Edwards struggled to breathe in the high-altitude fight, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ effortlessly dominated three rounds against him. By the fourth round, many confirmed Usman as the victor.

However, Edwards threw the most unexpected head kick at Usman with just 46 seconds left for the fifth round to end, which made his dream come true. The victory also paid back Edwards‘ loss against Usman at their first fight years ago. Now, the UFC world needs to wait with patience to find out the outcome of their trilogy bout.

How do you think their upcoming fight would pan out? Let us know in the comments below.

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