The world is still buzzing from Leon Edwards‘ epic fifth-round knockout of ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Kamaru Usman in the UFC 278 main event. With less than a minute to go, a seemingly dejected Leon Edwards delivered a picture-perfect head kick that leveled Usman, sending the crowd in Salt Lake City into an absolutely frenzy.
It was a crazy moment that will be relived over and over again. Another former British world championship, Michael Bisping, recently joined Anthony ‘Lionheart’ Smith on the Michael Bisping podcast to discuss Leon Edwards’ big night. During the conversation, Smith admitted that during the post-fight press conference, Leon Edwards said something that troubled him.
“He did say something that bothered me in his post-fight… like the media scrum or whatever. They were talking about him being the second champion from the UK and he said something along the lines of, ‘well, you know, Michael [Bisping] definitely did, but he did it while living in America.’ Like, almost dismissing the fact that you won a title as a guy from the UK, but doesn’t count because you were living in America when it happened.
“He was almost saying he’s the real first one from the UK which I don’t think is fair. I don’t think that’s… I don’t know. It bothered me to be honest with you. I don’t know if he meant it to come off that way, but it bothered me for sure.”
THE two most iconic moments in British MMA 🏆🏆@Leon_edwardsmma 🤝 @bisping pic.twitter.com/qH9MupyNNJ
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) August 21, 2022
Michael Bisping Responds To Leon Edwards’ Statement That Seemed to Dismiss Bisping’s Middleweight Title Win
Michael Bisping has become a popular member of the broadcast team for many of the UFC’s events over the years, but prior to that, ‘The Count’ was a UFC middleweight champion. Bisping captured the title on short notice at UFC 199, defeating Luke Rockhold. It was an incredible moment, reminiscent of the one that fellow Brit Leon Edwards delivered with his kick heard around the world.
Bisping admitted to seeing the story regarding Leon Edwards’ comments seemingly dismissing his claim as being the first UK-born UFC champion. ‘The Count’ has no intentions of diminishing Leon Edwards’ victory but disagreed with his comments vehemently.
“I just scroll on Facebook and I saw it there and it just kind of made me roll my eyes. I’m not gonna sit here and sh*t on what he did over the weekend at all. I’m so happy for him. Leon’s a great guy and I’ve been a massive cheerleader for his career for a long time. But, I saw that, and I just kind of rolled my eyes a little bit. I don’t really understand it if I’m quite frank. I don’t have an issue with it, but it’s just not correct.
“I was the first British guy to win The Ultimate Fighter. First British guy to main event. First British guy to win the belt. First British guy in the Hall of Fame and I have a f*cking British passport. And I did it all whilst living in the UK and then moved there (America) because I saw him say that, ‘oh yeah, you know he had to move to America.’ I had no f*cking team. The team that I was with were all crooks and they were stealing my money.
“Sorry, that one’s not valid, but we’ll leave one there because I don’t want to take away from his big moment.”
