Leon Edwards Labelled Ineligible for Double Champion Opportunity Prior to UFC 296 Clash Against Colby Covington- “Only Ever Fought Kamaru Usman”

UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards has his eyes set on becoming a double champion. The Englishman is set to face Colby Covington in his second title defense at UFC 269 in the UFC’s last PPV card of 2023 in December. ‘Rocky’, however, has no interest in defending his title after Covington.

He recently said in an interview that he would like to fight the winner of the middleweight title bout between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis set for UFC 297 in January ’24. However, fellow Englishman Michael Bisping and UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith disagree strongly with Edwards and revealed the reason for this disagreement on their YouTube show.

Bisping thinks Leon Edwards should stay at welterweight

Leon Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman via a devastating head kick in a shocking upset at UFC 278 in 2022. Although many termed the victory a fluke, since the Nigerian had dominated the vast majority of the bout until then, he silenced such criticisms in their next fight. ‘Rocky’ defeated Usman once again, this time via a unanimous decision at UFC 286 earlier this year.

And now the welterweight champion wants to fight for the middleweight title against the winner of Strickland-Du Plessis. Michael Bisping, however, was not convinced this would be a good move as he felt Edwards had not cleared up his division like other fighters such as Alexander Volkanovski did before moving up for a chance at becoming a simultaneous double-champion in the UFC.

“Alexander Volkanovski, if I’m not mistaken, defended his belt multiple times before he went up against Islam. So he didn’t really have any competition, you know. So I think in those kind of situations it’s fine, you know,” Bisping told his ‘Believe You Me’ podcast co-host Anthony Smith.

The former middleweight champion also added that he felt ‘Rocky’ had made this demand as he feels he has a good stylistic match-up against Sean Strickland. He felt if Khamzat Chimaev had been the champion, the welterweight champ wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about moving up and fighting him for the title.

Smith agrees that Edwards should clear out his division first

Anthony Smith agreed with Bisping that Edwards needs to deal with the challengers that come his way at welterweight before moving up. Alexander Volkanovski, for example, had defended his UFC featherweight belt five times before he moved up to face Islam Makhachev (who is harbouring double-champ aspirations himself) for the lightweight crown. Smith felt that ‘Rocky’ on the other hand had only one title defense and fought only Usman as champion, and that he should first fight a few welterweight challengers before fighting for the middleweight title.

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“I think you got to clear out your division. Like Leon moving up, that one, that one hits a little harder than some of the previous ones. Because like, come on dude. I like Leon, big big Leon fan. But he’s only ever fought Kamaru Usman in title fights. There’s a lot of challengers that are coming,” Smith said. Do you agree with Edwards’ wish to fight the winner of Strickland-Du Plessis? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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