- John McCarthy thought Leon Edwards didn’t have to wrestle Colby Covington at UFC 296
- “Big John” praised “Rocky” for staying composed despite everything “Chaos'” said
John McCarthy reckoned that Leon Edwards did a tremendous job of not letting Colby Covington’s antics make him lose focus at UFC 296. However, “Big John” thinks “Rocky” shouldn’t have attempted to wrestle with “Chaos.”
Leon’s only mistake
Speaking on his Weighing In podcast, McCarthy pointed out that Edwards did not have to wrestle with Covington just to prove that he could take him down. For “Big John,” Edwards could clearly beat “Chaos” in the standup and there was no need to take the fight to the ground.
“If you can make them upset and lose their composure, you can make them making mistakes, catch them in making mistakes and it was the question of was Leon going to be that person that goes out and makes the mistake of just going out there wild, trying to hurt somebody? Well, he didn’t do that at all,” McCarthy began.
“He was composed the entire time, he did make mistakes when it came to, ‘I want to prove to you I can wrestle with you which he did well but it’s not what… You remember when Daniel Cormier fought Jon Jones and in the first time? It got to the point where Jon had taken him down and it got to the point where Daniel wasn’t trying to win the fight in the end he was just trying to get a takedown to prove I can take you down and it’s like, don’t get into that man. It’s an MMA fight. I don’t care if you get taken down, so what? If you can get up and get away, get away,” he explained.
Colby was terrible at UFC 296
Indeed, Edwards’ performance at UFC 296 wasn’t one for the ages. However, Covington’s failure to deliver made “Rocky” looked good throughout the fight.
According to Daniel Cormier, “Chaos” didn’t walk the talk inside the Octagon against Edwards and the fight left him wanting some more. Meanwhile, Michael Chandler ripped Covington over his performance and called it “worse than weak.”
As it stands, Edwards will be waiting for his next challenger, while Covington eyes a fight with Stephen Thompson.
Check out McCarthy’s full podcast below:
