On August 20, 2022, UFC 278 took place at the Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The main event for this particular card saw the reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman take on a familiar opponent in the challenger Leon “Rocky” Edwards.
To those unfamiliar with the history between these two, it goes far deeper than a rematch of a fight that happened seven years ago. On one side you have Kamaru Usman, arguably the greatest welterweight champion of all time, certainly the most dominant, and one win away from tying Anderson Silva’s undefeated streak of 16-0. Usman has more than just his title on the line; he has the opportunity to make history, to begin to truly cement himself as the greatest welterweight champion of all time.
Then you have the challenger, the ultimate underdog Leon Edwards, whose
second-ever professional loss occurred in 2015 against none other than the would-be champion Usman via unanimous decision. After his victory over Edwards, Usman would then go on to win the title four years later against Tyron Woodley while injuries and canceled fights kept Leon in a constant state of contenders’ limbo.
Even so, after enduring that loss from Usman, Leon would go on an eight-fight winning streak with three of those fights ending by finish, all while
constantly improving with every performance. Leon’s road to the title, however, got mildly bumpy after an accidental eye poke to Belal Muhammed that would end the fight and be declared a no-contest. He quickly rebounded with an exciting and dominating win over Nate Diaz in June of 2021.
After this performance, however, canceled fights and injuries would once again keep Leon seemingly out of the title picture for the rest of the year. But after months of bidding his time and training, he knew in his mind that he was ready for his title shot and his long-awaited rematch against Kamaru Usman.
Leon would finally get his wish, the fight was set for August
20, 2022, and he would finally get his much sought-after shot at the welterweight championship.
The lead-up was simple: It was Usman’s title to lose, and no one had any reason to believe that he would leave Vivint SmartHome Arena without the championship. After four rounds of dominating Leon Edwards, it seemed like those predictions would come true, as Kamaru was cruising towards a unanimous decision win against Leon.
Understandably so, Leon was mentally defeated; you could see it in the way he trudged back to his corner after the fourth round, but his coaches refused to let him go out without a fight. They impassioned him to quit feeling sorry for himself, saying he was in too deep, and the only choice he had left was “to pull it out of the fire.”
With those words in his mind, Leon met Usman in the middle of the octagon for the fifth and final round. As the clock ticked down it wasn’t looking good, Usman had Leon scouted and was picking him apart. With a minute and a half remaining, Leon’s coaches yelled the words “head kick,” and Leon throws a jab, then feints the left, and immediately follows with
possibly the most important head kick of his life, landing perfectly and dropping the now-former champion instantly.
All it took was one moment, one split-second mistake, plus one flawlessly thrown head kick, and after four rounds of not giving up, suddenly the entire MMA landscape changed. Leon Edwards’ perseverance just goes to show that if you have the will, the determination, the effort and the mindset to be able to weather whatever storm may come, you can truly accomplish whatever you set your mind to.
“They all said I couldn’t do it. Look at me now, pound-for-pound, headshot, dead,” Leon Edwards said during a UFC 278 post-fight octagon interview.
