Leon Edwards is one of the greats.
One does not go more than eight years between losses in the UFC, as the former welterweight champion did, without being a transcendent talent.
After falling to Kamaru Usman on Dec. 19, 2015, Edwards didn’t lose again for more than eight years, until July 27, when Belal Muhammad took his belt via decision at UFC 304 in Manchester, England.
That’s an all-time résumé. Usman (twice), Covington, Diaz, dos Anjos, Cerrone: It's an MMA murderers’ row.
What happened next, though, is where Edwards lost more than just his belt.
He offered maybe the worst excuse for a defeat in UFC history when he blamed the event's early morning start local time for his subpar performance.
The main card started at 2 a.m. Manchester time to allow for the usual 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT start for a UFC pay-per-view card. That put the start of the main event at close to 5 in the morning.
Maybe Bruce Buffer should introduce him as Le-yawn Edwards when he returns to the cage on Saturday to take on Sean Brady in the main event of UFC London at the O2 Arena.
❗️ Leon Edwards says he was injured and underestimated Belal Muhammad at UFC 304
— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) March 19, 2025
“Going into the fight, there was injuries. The thing that made the most difference was the time, fighting at 5am.”
“I just thought ‘it’s Belal (laughs). I can beat Belal.’”
via @ufcontnt pic.twitter.com/8KCorvPJvf
Before the card, I asked every fighter I interviewed, Edwards and Muhammad included, what impact, if any, the crazy start time would have. To a man, they all said none.
But after losing, Edwards changed his tune, whining about how fighting at 5 a.m. threw him off. If that’s true, he only had himself to blame. He had three months to adjust his sleep patterns. He also made north of $1 million, so it’s not like he wasn’t compensated for the inconvenience.
It wasn't ideal, but it's the kind of thing professional athletes do all the time.
A healthy ego is required to be successful as a fighter, but it also makes it difficult to admit someone was better on a given night.
Muhammad is in Chicago now, preparing for a title fight in May against Jack Della Maddalena, and has been jabbing incessantly at Edwards in his spare time.
Edwards is desperate to right what he sees as the wrong, and Muhammad hasn’t been far from his mind.
He hasn’t brought up Muhammad unsolicited, but he’s a master at dodging questions when he wants or needs to do so. And while he’s been asked repeatedly about Muhammad, Edwards didn’t move on by saying he’s focused only on Brady.
That’s not lost on Brady, whose only loss was to Muhammad.
“I think that’s a bad look on Leon to be thinking about other people when all I’m thinking about is fighting him,” Brady said. “He’s thinking about No. 1 contenders, and getting back at Belal, and talking shit about Belal. But he’s got someone in front of him who’s trying to kill him Saturday night. He has more things to be concerned about than being a No. 1 contender in the division.”
It’s not only Edwards making the inane excuse about time, because the fight started at 5 in the morning for Muhammad, too. But Edwards’ coach Dave Lovell has whined about something he had every opportunity to make a non-factor.
Lovell appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show and said, “In England, when have you ever heard of a sportsman performing 6 o’clock in the morning? It’s never been heard of before, and no doubt you’ll never hear of it again.”Don’t bet on that, Coach.
Regardless, it’s a loser’s mentality to blame the start time. It wasn’t changed the night before the fight.
File
Belal Muhammad celebrates after defeating Leon Edwards at UFC 304.
Edwards let Muhammad have it at media day and he made a fair point when he noted that it wasn’t like he was finished, or even close.
“The way Belal talks it’s like he went out there and knocked me down and dropped me and battered me for all the rounds,” Edwards said. “All he did was outwrestle me. He picked me up, [and] put me against the cage. He did no damage, really.”
Muhammad won three of the five rounds on two scorecards and four of the five on the third, so it wasn’t like Edwards was close to retaining the belt.
He poked at Muhammad for his boastful talk, but he forgets that the winners talk and the losers say deal.
“The way he talks is so different from what he does in the cage,” Edwards said. “It’s like he’s two different people. When he talks, it’s like he’s Mike Tyson but when he fights, that’s not what he is.”
What Edwards is is one of the elite fighters in the world who is struggling to overcome a shocking defeat.
That doesn’t make him unique.
Blaming the start time, however, is.
What’s next, asking officials to adjust the temperature of the building before he makes his ring walk?
He’s a great fighter. He should quit making an excuse about the start time and act like it.