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Last night at UFC 278, fans were treated to one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, as Leon Edwards managed to knock out longtime welterweight champion Kamaru Usman late in the fifth round of their clash to claim the title.
Leon Edwards is the UFC’s new welterweight champion, and now the question is all about who he will face in his first title defense, with two options standing out.
The UFC could easily book an instant rematch between ‘Rocky’ and ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’. After all, with five successful defenses prior to this bout, Usman probably deserves a shot to put things right.
However, with the UFC’s hottest welterweight prospect – Khamzat Chimaev – set to fight Nate Diaz in his first headline bout next month, he could also make a case for a title shot if he can defeat the popular veteran.
So will Leon Edwards’ first defense come against Kamaru Usman, Khamzat Chimaev, or someone different altogether?
The case for Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 3
As every fan knows, the UFC loves to book rematches, particularly when titles are involved. At times, this makes perfect sense, but sometimes we’ve seen examples of rematches that honestly weren’t necessary being booked right away. Did anyone really need to see Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar 2 in the summer of 2012, for instance?
In this case, though, it’s hard not to see the case for giving Kamaru Usman an immediate chance to avenge his loss to Leon Edwards.
Prior to his defeat at UFC 278, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ had looked like the most dominant welterweight champion since the great Georges St-Pierre, and appeared to be well on his way to surpassing the legacy of the Canadian.
Usman had defeated Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns – the former two fighters on two occasions – to put together five successful title defenses. More to the point, he looked unbeatable, being capable of easily outgrappling his opponents or knocking them out, and he’d never been taken down in turn.
Edwards, though, stunned everyone with his performance last night. Not only did he become the first man to plant ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ on his back – winning the first round in the process – but after losing the majority of the fight, he then uncorked an insane head kick to knock Usman out and win the title.
Despite losing via knockout, though, Usman was well on his way to a victory had the head kick not landed. Therefore, he’d probably go into a rematch with Edwards as a heavy favorite, with this victory feeling more like an upset along the lines of Julianna Pena’s win over Amanda Nunes rather than a dominating victory like Usman’s own title win over Tyron Woodley.
The other thing to remember here is that thanks to Usman’s 2015 victory over Edwards, the two rivals are actually 1-1 overall. That means that a rematch now would count as a trilogy bout – and the UFC loves to book them, too.
Add in the fact that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is getting no younger at the age of 35, and it’s only fair to give him a second chance at Edwards before the window of his athletic prime begins to close.
Essentially, then, Usman has done more than enough to warrant an instant rematch – he’d probably be favoured to win anyway – and given the UFC’s love of booking them, it seems to make too much sense to go in another direction.
The case for Leon Edwards vs. Khamzat Chimaev
The only thing that might make the UFC deviate from a rematch between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman is the fact that Khamzat Chimaev might be ready for a title shot, and the promotion may not want to make ‘Borz’ wait.
Chimaev is currently ranked at #3 in the welterweight division, but it’s arguable that his win over Gilbert Burns should’ve been enough to edge him in front of #2 ranked Colby Covington.
The Sweden-based Chechnyan is booked to face popular veteran Nate Diaz in September, and while anything can happen in the octagon – as we saw last night – he’ll be heavily favored to win this bout easily, purely because he’s a horrible stylistic match for the Stockton-based fighter.
Would a win over Diaz be enough to warrant Chimaev a title shot? It’s debatable. Diaz isn’t currently ranked in the top ten at welterweight, but he still holds a lot of name value, and a victory over him would move ‘Borz’ to 6-0 overall.
Sure, two of those wins were against low-level opposition while another came at 185lbs, but that doesn’t really matter. The last prospect to garner this much hype in the UFC was Conor McGregor, and everyone knows exactly what happened to him.
Essentially, Chimaev has once-in-a-lifetime star potential, and, no disrespect intended, there’s a chance that he could become a far bigger draw than Usman or Edwards if he were to claim the title. So, it would obviously make sense that the UFC would want to put him in a position to do that.
Add in the fact that Chimaev and Edwards have history – they were booked to face off on more than one occasion in 2021, with a bad case of COVID-19 preventing ‘Borz’ from fighting – and it could make more sense for the promotion to go in this direction, stunningly moving on from the ageing Usman altogether.
The case for Leon Edwards vs. another fighter
While Kamaru Usman and Khamzat Chimaev seem to be the only logical options for Leon Edwards’ first UFC welterweight title defense, there’s always the chance that the promotion will decide to throw a curveball instead.
Both Usman and Chimaev have always seemed like consummate company men, but we’ve seen on multiple occasions before that money talks, and often, the UFC are willing to go with a cheaper option if the contender they want demands too much.
If that were the case, then one fighter that could step in might be Jorge Masvidal. ‘Gamebred’ has not won a fight since his victory over Nate Diaz in late 2019, losing his last three bouts, but he remains one of the UFC’s most bankable fighters.
More to the point, Masvidal and Edwards have an existing rivalry which dates back to early 2019, when ‘Gamebred’ sucker punched ‘Rocky’ backstage following the UFC’s visit to London. Therefore, it’d be very easy to market a title bout between them – even if Masvidal doesn’t deserve such a shot.
There’s always the chance, too, that Diaz finds a way to upset Chimaev at UFC 279. Right now, the bout with ‘Borz’ is set to be the final one on Diaz’s contract with the UFC, but if he were to pull off a win, it’d be easy to imagine the promotion throwing a title shot – as well as a ton of money – at him to stay.
Diaz does have history with Edwards, losing a five-round decision to him in 2021, but given how that fight ended – with Diaz almost pulling off an upset – a rematch for the title would be another easy sell for the UFC.
Finally, there’s Colby Covington. ‘Chaos’ lost both of his title bouts to Usman, seemingly knocking him out of contention, but Usman is the only fighter he’s lost to in recent memory. When you consider that he beat Masvidal in his most recent fight, then there’s perhaps an argument for him vaulting to the front of the queue.
If the UFC could book him to fight Edwards in the UK, turning the bout into a major international rivalry in the process, it could easily sell out a big venue like Wembley Stadium, making everyone involved a lot of money in the process.
In this sense, then, even though his path seems clear right now, there are more options for Leon Edwards than fans may think. Essentially, the new UFC welterweight champion has his hands full.
