Leon “Rocky” Edwards finally, and deservedly gets his title shot after 9 fights (8 wins, 1 NC). He will be rematching Kamaru Usman, the welterweight champ at UFC 278 in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday August, 20th. They rematched just under 7 years ago where the current champ took it to a decision. The way to victory was via the champs wrestling, to which he used to set up strikes, and control most of the fight. Edwards claimed he did not know anything about wrestling and believed that he needed to go to the United States in order to get better. Where he did a few weeks at American Kickboxing Academy (AKA). Famous gym of Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier and Khabib Nurmagomedov who were under the tutelage of owner and head trainer Javier Mendez. Since then, Edwards has noticeably gotten better at grappling, and has always had great striking. The theme of this fight has since been the focus on Leon’s wrestling and if it has improved. As both were quoting the Famous line from Khabib and Conors UFC 229 press conference, “Lets Wrestle, Lets Wrestle” at the UFC 278 press conference in London.
What took so long?
Edwards was on a 9 fight streak before they decided to even give him the title shot. Undefeated since his loss to Usman. Edwards got skipped over by Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal, twice. Even Colby Covington got his rematch. It seems if it wasn’t for the fans, MMA community and mostly Mojahed Fudailat a content creator on Youtube, he would not of been given this title shot. Ariel Helwani also campaigned a lot for Edwards. Let us not forget it is Rocky who is getting himself the title shot through his skills and combined win streak. He just needed a little push.
Although, a lot of people, including us, are skeptical if it had to do with him not being as popular as other fighters. Or not having as many instagram/twitter followers, or saying brash things on the mic that will get views for the UFC, as his past opponents were big draws. But 9 fights, willing to take on anyone, even the untested Khamzat Chimaev, at the time, who turned out to be a highly skilled martial artist after being tested. Rocky deserved the title shot a couple of fights ago.
Who is Mojahed Fudailat and what is his relation to Leon?
Mojahed Fudailat is a short film & animation maker who makes 3D art animations on Youtube. He started his account 10 years ago but started making animations on fighters in particular 5 years ago.
After Leon’s bouts started getting cancelled, due to the pandemic. Like his match with Tyron Woodley. He was then scheduled to fight Khamzat Chimaev on December 19th, 2020. Edwards tested positive for covid. It was then rescheduled for January 20th, 2021, but Chimaev had to pull out because of lingering covid issues.
After all this Mojahed started to campaign for Leon. He started to introduce Leon in every one of his animations every single day. Having Leon quote his famous line from an Ariel Helwani interview on The MMA Hour, “I believe I deserve a title shot next“. Every video, regardless of the subject, Mojahed found a creative way to fit Leon in his animations. Getting the fans behind him. He has a big following of about 460K subscribers averaging over 100K views a video. He started to get enough people campaigning for Leon that fans didn’t care about who beat who, or the hype train (Chimaev, at that time) in the welterweight division. Although some would have still wanted to see Khamzat get a title shot. Almost everyone knew Leon deserved it most. That is why Mojahed was his number 1 guy. He campaigned for Leon when nobody else would speak up. Just the rumblings and outrage on the internet forums.
Leon’s Entrance song.
This needs to be Edwards walkout track. It would be such a beautiful tribute back to Mojahed and the fans.
