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Third-ranked UFC welterweight Leon Edwards has revealed that his 2015 loss to Kamaru Usman is one of his primary motivators to continue his impressive run of form to the top of the division.
Since that fight, Leon Edwards has made it his mission to get back his loss to 'The Nigerian Nightmare' and has not lost a single bout. In a recent interview with James English, Edwards was asked if the defeat still stings. He replied:
"Yeah for sure. Every day. That's what drives me. It motivates me to keep winning."
Edwards came up short against Usman in what was only his fourth UFC fight. 'The Nigerian Nightmare' utilized dominant wrestling to control Leon for long stretches of the fight. The judges deemed it a unanimous decision victory for Usman.
Leon Edwards heavily attributes a change in training camp to the Usman loss
Leon Edwards states that in the buildup to his fight with Kamaru Usman, he changed gyms, moving from Team Renegade in Birmingham, England, to AKA in California, USA. The reason for this move was supposedly down to pressure from his fellow fighters.
"In the UK, there's a weird thing when you get to a level and they're like "you need to go to America." To improve. You can't do it from Birmingham. There's no one there to train with, blah blah blah. As a kid, you start believing it because the older guys are telling you this. You need to go to America, you need to do this. I started believing it and went to AKA," said Leon Edwards.
Unfortunately for Edwards, this change in camp was supposedly the primary reason for the loss to Usman. The game plan formulated by the coaches at AKA had a heavy emphasis on a defensive mindset, a method entirely opposite to Edwards' strengths.
"I fought with a defensive mindset," said Leon Edwards. "I wasn't thinking about what I needed to do, it was more just about what he's going to do and do I let him do it. That's not a good way to look at life or fighting."
