Leon “Rocky” Edwards, 30, is the new welterweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a resident of Erdington, Birmingham, England.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Edwards moved to Aston, Birmingham in 2000. His brother Fabian “The Assassin” Edwards, 29, has been fighting in Bellator MMA since 2019.
Leon trains at the Ultimate Training Centre in Erdington, which borders of Aston, Perry Barr, Hodge Hill, Kingstanding, Tyburn, Stockland Green, Sutton Coldfield, Minworth, Castle Bromwich and Water Orton. Former footballer Paul Devlin, 50, television host John Oliver, 45, and actor Ryan Cartwright, 41, were all born in Erdington.
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On August 20, 2022, Leon and Kamaru “The Nigerian Nightmare” Usman, 35, of Nigeria and the United States headlined “UFC 278” at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The former challenged the latter, who was the then reigning UFC Welterweight Champion.
Referee Herb Dean stopped the title bout after 4 minutes and 4 seconds in the fifth round. Leon knocked out Usman via head kick.
Aside from being crowned the new UFC Welterweight Champion, Leon also received a $50,000 bonus as one of the Performance of the Night winners. The Fight of the Night was the co-main event between Paulo “Borrachinha” Costa, 31, of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil and former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold, 37, of San Jose, California, USA.
It was a rematch between Leon and Usman. The new UFC Welterweight Champion now holds a professional MMA record of 19 wins, 3 losses and 1 No Contest.
On the other hand, Usman now has 20 wins and 2 losses. Born in Auchi, Nigeria, he is currently based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
Leon made his professional MMA debut on June 5, 2011 in Leicester, England. On May 5, 2014, he became the welterweight champion of the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts by submitting Wayne Murrie via rear-naked choke in Hackney Wick, England.
When Leon made his UFC debut on November 8, 2014, he lost via split decision to Claudio Silva in Uberlândia, Brazil. On April 11, 2015, Leon earned his first UFC win by knocking out Seth Baczynski in Krakow, Poland.
On December 19, 2015, Leon lost via unanimous decision to Usman in Orlando, Florida. The Erdington resident went on to earn nine wins in the UFC before fighting the Nigerian-American MA fighter again.
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