Leon Edwards Believes Future Fight With Khamzat Chimaev Is Inevitable: ‘We’ll Meet Down The Line’
Surging #3 ranked UFC welterweight contender, Leon Edwards believes it’s almost inevitable that he will stand opposite the #10 ranked, Khamzat Chimaev sometime in the future — particularly if his once scheduled foe continues to run roughshod through welterweight competition.
Edwards, who was slated to make his third Octagon walk of this year at UFC 269 on December 11. coming — found himself opponent-less for the pay-per-view event, after scheduled-foe, arch-rival, and two-time title chaser, Jorge Masvidal was forced from the grudge match after he reportedly suffered an undisclosed injury.
The Team Renagade BJJ & MMA staple has been removed from the UFC 269 card entirely as a result, with an already scheduled welterweight matchup between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Geoff Neal now bumped up to the main card portion of the event.
A slew of welterweight contenders had offered their services on short notice to the UFC in a bid to replace Masvidal and challenge Edwards in a likely title-eliminator — including the trio of former-foe, Belal Muhammad, one-time title challenger, Gilbert Burns, as well as the aforenoted, Chimaev, however, Edwards has announced plans to sit out and wait for a title shot against past opponent, Kamaru Usman instead.
For Chimaev, the #10 ranked contender was paired with Edwards previously on three separate occasions, in a trio of scheduled main event bouts that failed to materialize on each occasion. And made his first Octagon walk in over 13 months at UFC 267 in October — stopping Li Jingliang with a brutally one-sided first round rear-naked choke in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Leon Edwards belives a future fight with Khamzat Chimaev is possible further down the line
Reacting to Chimaev’s victory against Jingliang, Edwards claimed that he knew the AllStars MMA staple would stop Jingliang in convincing fashion. And maintains he will likely meet the Chechen-born finisher in the future.
“I knew that was gonna happen,” Leon Edwards said of Chimaev’s win over Jingliang to ESPN MMA. “The UFC match him smart, you know — they know what they’re doing the way they match him, they match him smart. I knew he was gonna win — I knew he was gonna shoot for the takedown early. Yeah, like I said, fair play to him, he’s doing what he needs to do. Like I said, let him work his way up, and eventually, we’ll probably meet down the line.“
For Birmingham technician, Edwards, his most recent professional victory came in June at UFC 263 as he handed the veteran, Nate Diaz a unanimous decision loss in Glendale, Arizona — scoring his ninth victory in his last ten Octagon appearances.
