{"id":335647,"date":"2019-12-16T12:07:23","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=335647"},"modified":"2019-12-16T12:07:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:07:23","slug":"kamaru-usman-views-leon-edwards-as-top-welterweight-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/kamaru-usman-views-leon-edwards-as-top-welterweight-contender\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamaru Usman views Leon Edwards as top welterweight contender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kamaru Usman held onto the UFC welterweight title at UFC 245, knocking his challenger Colby Covington out in the fifth round. With this victory in the rear-view, the champion can now look ahead to his next challenge.<\/p>\n<p>He believes England&#8217;s Leon Edwards is the fighter most deserving of an opportunity.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UFC 245: Post-fight Press Conference\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RTYILKTNtag?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMan, there\u2019s a lot of tough guys in the division: a lot, a lot of tough guys. Let\u2019s be honest,\u201d Usman said at the\u00a0UFC 245 post-fight press conference (transcript via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/usman-edwards-more-deserving-of-title-shot-than-masvidal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMA News<\/a>). \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about someone who\u2019s deserving, Leon Edwards hasn\u2019t lost since he fought me. He\u2019s been finishing guys. And he\u2019s now found himself in the position that I found myself in a little over a year ago\u2026is everyone knew that I was one of the toughest guys out there, and they didn\u2019t want to gamble and take that risk on me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Usman and Edwards fought back in 2015. On that night, Usman defeated Edwards by unanimous decision. Since then, Edwards has gone on an eight-fight tear, defeating men like Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson, and most recently, Rafael dos Anjos.<\/p>\n<p>While Usman now views Edwards as the fighter most deserving of a title shot, he says he&#8217;ll take on whoever the UFC sees fit. Based on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dana-white-reveals-plans-for-ufc-champions-alex-volkanovski-and-kamaru-usman\/\">UFC President Dana White&#8217;s recent comments<\/a>, that probably means Jorge Masvidal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I\u2019m sitting above, looking at all these guys and they\u2019re kind of all in that pool\u2026.very tightly contested,&#8221; Usman said. &#8220;So they just need to break out, and I\u2019m waiting for whoever Dana and the organization feel is the next guy for me, and I\u2019ll be happy. I\u2019ve never turned down a fight, especially now; I\u2019m the champion. So if they say, \u2018This is the next guy,\u2019 then, hey, that\u2019s the next guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who do you think should be next for Kamaru Usman?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 12\/16\/2019.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kamaru Usman held onto the UFC welterweight title at UFC 245, knocking his challenger Colby Covington out in the fifth round. With this victory in the rear-view, the champion can now look ahead to his next challenge. He believes England&#8217;s Leon Edwards is the fighter most deserving of an opportunity. \u201cMan, there\u2019s a lot of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":317924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10515,10616,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kamaru Usman views Leon Edwards as top welterweight contender | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the wake of his UFC 245 win over Colby Covington, Kamaru Usman now views Leon Edwards as the fighter most deserving of a welterweight title shot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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