32-Year-Old UFC Champion Confirms Retirement Timeline After Pressure From Family: “Nobody Wins a Bout After 35…”

It seems like a current UFC champion has already planned the day he will hang up his gloves. Welterweight kingpin Leon Edwards, who’s defending his title at UFC 304 in Manchester, has revealed that certain factors, including a member of his family, have weighed in on the day he’ll retire from the UFC, which might not be a good thing for the promotion and Dana White.

‘Rocky’ has proved in his current run that he’s indeed one of the top UFC fighters at the moment. An astounding fact is that Leon Edwards hasn’t been beaten since 2016 and is one of the few fighters who’ve reached such a moment. But all good things come to an end, and for the welterweight champion, a few more years is what he believes he has left.

Trouble for Dana White as Leon Edwards spills the beans on his retirement plans

Leon Edwards is on the run of a lifetime in the UFC – he’s on an amazing winning streak and memorably won UFC gold. Now, many would think that Edwards might have some more accomplishments as his goals. However, he recently spoke about some other goals and the variety of work he’s involved in outside of the fighting world.

“I got a lot of projects [outside of the UFC] I’m working on right now and [that] will set me up good [so] that I can then… be able to do what I want with my time when I’m retired,” said Leon Edwards in a recent YouTube video posted by the UFC. But why would he talk about retirement? He’s only 32. Well, Edwards’s son has been nagging him to finish up his career when he turns 35.

“That’s my plan. My son keeps saying to me, ‘Dad, you need to retire at 35’. I was like, ‘Bro, [that’s only] three years.” Not only that, but there is real evidence to substantiate that after 35, fighters do not fight much luck, especially in divisions lower than 185 pounds in the UFC. Leon Edwards further stated, “There’s like a theme in MMA. It’s after like 35… Nobody wins a bout after 35 [at a] certain weight, that’s what I’m saying.”

If we look at the statistics of fighters after 35 years of age below the middleweight division, they’ve emerged victorious on only two occasions and lost on thirty-three occasions. It seems like a concerning issue. Regardless, our Jamaican-born English UFC fighter plans to fight two more years after he turns 35 before he bids farewell to MMA.

“My plan is to retire at 37. First is 37. By the time then I’ll be setting up for everyone [and their] future,” Leon Edwards added. While this may not be as bad news for Dana White as some would think it is because the UFC CEO recently lost one veteran fighter because of his negligence.

A UFC veteran retired recently after failing to earn a spot at UFC 300

UFC 300 was a monumental success for Dana White. With 12 champions and some of the best fights of the year, including the earth-shattering knockout of Justin Gaethje by Max Holloway, the PPV didn’t disappoint. But one fighter who did not find himself on the card was welterweight veteran Matt Brown. The 43-year-old wanted to sum up his MMA career at the triple-century PPV, but Dana White did not seem to accommodate him and add him to the event.

“My mind was set on UFC 300 and I thought I had all the pieces in place to make it happen… Jim Miller said publicly that he’d accept the fight and would love to do it. So I was literally training for that fight and then it didn’t happen… So that was probably the final nail in the coffin,” Matt Brown stated on The MMA Hour. He missed out on a great send off but his name will forever remain in the history books for sure.

Turning over to Leon Edwards, do you think he’s serious about retiring at 37? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.