Leon Edwards, for a moment, had a world title opportunity presented to him during the craziness of booking the main event for UFC 244. First, it was Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington that was discussed, then Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal, and ultimately onto Masvidal vs. Edwards for the vacant title before landing on the signed headliner, Masvidal taking on Nate Diaz.

“Rocky” has won eight fights in a row including his most recent victory over former world champion Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of UFC San Antonio. With Edwards’ recent surge, and Covington’s internal battle with the UFC going on, the 28-year-old is staking his claim at the title shot over the brash Covington.

Edwards feels the fight makes sense from a meritocracy standpoint, plus, Usman holds a unanimous decision victory over Edwards at UFC on FOX 17 in December 2015.

“F**k Colby Covington,” Edwards told MMA Fighting. “I don’t like Colby anyways. I don’t give a s**t about what he’s doing. My thing is to get a world title shot. Let’s me and Kamaru run it back. We’ve got the most wins in the division, we’re the two best in the division. Let’s run it back.

“For me that would be perfect — him having the title and me taking it off him — that would be the fairytale story. To defeat the last man to defeat me for the title, I hope I get the chance to do that.”

Usman captured the title when he defeated longtime champion Tyron Woodley by unanimous decision at UFC 235 in March. It’s abundantly clear that Edwards deserves a big fight so he is swinging for the fences to get the biggest fight, and the biggest opportunity possible.

“My message [to Kamaru Usman] is let’s run it back,” Edwards stated. “We fought years ago and let’s run it back so I can get the title off you.”

What do you think? Should Kamaru Usman defend his welterweight title against Leon Edwards or Colby Covington?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/11/2019.