![]() Rafael Fiziev was faster, sharper and he was pressing.Īnd as the third round began with him landing laser-guided right hands to Justin Gaethje's head, it seemed the lightweight guard-Gaethje entered as the third-ranked contender to Fiziev's No. I had to go out there land the cleaner shots. "I was setting him up with the body kicks and the leg kicks. ![]() ![]() Nevertheless, Usman did maintain steady pressure and landed heavy strikes of his own, occasionally rendering Edwards stiff-legged but never to the point of an immediate knockdown or finish.Īnd as mentioned, he wasn't able to keep Edwards down and dole out heavy punishment on the mat. He also thrived in most situations where the fighters were in close and repeatedly either defended Usman's takedowns outright or was able to get up quickly without significant damage. He strafed Usman to the body and legs throughout, attempting to set up another game-changing head kick, but it never came. Speaking of that game plan, Edwards' path to victory was again centered on kicks. "He had a great game plan, and I always said it from the start, I knew I'd see Leon again. "I think I did enough to win the fight, but I knew it was a close fight," he said. All three judges gave him the first and fifth rounds, and two out of the three gave him both the second and the fourth as well.ī/R's card slid the other direction and had it 3-2 in Usman's favor, translating to 48-46, but the still ex-champion had no significant beef with the scoring-even suggesting the series isn't over. Two judges gave him 48-46 margins on the scorecards even with a point deduction because of a fence grab, and a third saw it even at 47. The underdog Englishman arrived to the trilogy fight with Usman as an underdog yet again, but he exited the cage with both a belt and a series lead-capturing a majority-decision over five narrow rounds. Leon Edwards lost his first fight with Kamaru Usman and was on the way to losing the second one before landing the head kick heard 'round the world.Īnd it turns out he wasn't quite ready for it to be over. Take a look at what we came up with, and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.Īlejandro Salazar/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The B/R combat team was in place for every punch, kick and takedown and put together a definitive list of the event's real winners and losers. The bout topped the night's five-bout PPV portion that came at the tail end of a 15-bout card that got started at 12:30 p.m. The fifth-round head kick earned Edwards the 170-pound title last August and prompted the third fight when it leveled the series at 1-1. The principals responsible for both numbers are welterweights Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman, who topped UFC 286 in the third meeting of a rivalry that began in 2015 and continued last year with one of the most shocking one-shot knockouts in history. The mixed martial arts conglomerate packed up the production and flew it across the Atlantic for a Saturday night show at a jam-packed O2 Arena in London, marking both the sixth title fight in the United Kingdom and the 17th trilogy in the promotion's history. They'll do it again in three more.īut the UFC wasn't quite through with its pay-per-view magic.
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