Featured Image Credit: UFC/Instagram.
Topics: Kamaru Usman, Leon Edwards, MMA, UFC, Australia
Jayden Collins
Topics: Kamaru Usman, Leon Edwards, MMA, UFC, Australia
Leon Edwards shocked the UFC world with a stunning leg kick that caught Kamaru Usman flush and crowed the British-Jamaican the new UFC welterweight champion.
And no one was more proud than the new champ’s mother.
It was a daunting task for Edwards who had previously copped a defeat to Usman back in 2015, and it’s safe to say their rematch was heading the same way.
Edwards looked dejected and out as the fighters headed into the final round, but a piece of shocking brilliance dropped everyone’s jaws and knocked out Usman.
It was an emotional victory for the man who became the first-ever Jamaican UFC champion.
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The magnitude of the victory became very clear in a video captured by the UFC that saw Edwards jump on his phone backstage to call his family.
As he walks down the corridor he shouts to the camera: “I told you, mum, I told you I’d do it!”
His family are clearly ecstatic on the other end of the phone line as they scream and cry for joy.
Edwards continues to pace up and down as he struggles to contain his emotions before finally being overcome as he breaks down in tears while still on the phone with his mother.
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It’s the sort of moment that sporting fans love to see, an athlete reaching the top against all odds.
The new champion was understandably emotional in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan as well, in what was arguably the biggest upset in the sport’s history.
He told the commentator: “I was born in Jamaica with nothing. I lived in a wooden shed with a zinc roof. Look at me now.
“Pound for pound, headshot, dead. That's it.
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“I said it's possible, we can win a belt from the UK, I told you.”
He then paid tribute to his mother.
Edwards continued: “I want to, first of all, thank god. Mum, I love you, I told you I'd do it for you, I told you I'd change your life.
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“All week I felt like this is my moment, everything in the past, the two years, the pandemic, look at me now, I'm champion of the world.
“Thank you Dana [White - UFC president], and to the UFC for giving an opportunity to a kid who was born with nothing, thank you.”
It was Usman’s first-ever loss in the UFC stopping him short of equaling Anderson Silva’s iconic 16-fight win streak.