So, I could sit here and tell you that it was, for about five minutes or so, really great to see Leon Edwards back in the cage on Saturday night. I could sit here and tell you about how good he looked when he was standing in there against Belal Muhammad. I could tell you about how it looked like his nearly two-year layoff didn’t affect him, that he was as sharp as ever, and seemed fated for his first ever UFC championship opportunity.
But let’s be real, none of that matters anymore. You guys want to hear about that goddamned eye poke.
Goddamn, is Leon cursed or what? Edwards didn’t just poke Belal Muhammad’s eye early in the second round of their fight Saturday – he basically fish-hooked his eyelid. He nearly ripped the damn thing off Muhammad’s head. After nearly two years on the shelf, Leon Edwards’ first fight back was ruled a no contest, on one of the most stomach-curdling fouls you’ll ever see.
All that waiting for nothing. The poke caused Muhammad’s eye to immediately start bleeding and ruined his vision – thankfully, according to Muhammad, there shouldn’t be any lasting damage – and spoiled a fight that should have produced an exciting challenger for welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Edwards was set up to face Usman next with a win over Muhammad. Instead, the fight turned into a flashpoint in the ongoing fighter safety debate, and intensified years-old calls for better gloves that reduce the chances of fight-changing eye pokes.
People have been asking for it for years, and I highly doubt the UFC will ever give enough of a shit about its fighters to do anything about it. For his part, Edwards apologized, but is already trying to move on. Edwards, off the strength of winning the first round of a fight he then destroyed by not watching his goddamn fingers, made it very clear that he planned to move past the fight and still challenge for the title next.
That’s one heck of an insult to Muhammad, who stepped up on short notice to take on one of the world’s top welterweights, and deserves an honest shot. It’s also not going to happen. It’s probably not a coincidence that just two days after Edwards nearly ripped Muhammad’s eye out of its socket, the UFC announced Usman’s next challenger: Jorge Masvidal, in a rematch of last year’s completely uncompetitive title challenge, in front of (allegedly) a full crowd of fans in Jacksonville.
If you didn’t think the UFC wouldn’t jump at the first chance to run with a full crowd during a pandemic, you haven’t been paying attention. And while it’s great to see Usman so active – the fight will be his second in a little over two months, after he fought just once in all of 2020 – the Masvidal rematch is the least interesting fight the UFC could have possibly chosen.
Masvidal’s whole argument for getting a rematch at Usman stems from the fact that his first opportunity came on short notice, stepping in after intended challenger Gilbert Burns tested positive for COVID-19 a little over a week before their scheduled bout in July. That, and his notoriety to the casual fan, stemming from his viral four-second knockout of Ben Askren in July 2019, his action style, and his “BMF” belt clash with Nate Diaz which headlined a pay-per-view. (It’s all kind of a secondhand Conor McGregor bump-type-thing.)
Masvidal has always been one of the most entertaining scrappers in the world, but his status as an actual elite welterweight has always been in question. The list of legitimate contenders he’s beaten in the last few years is actually very short – Darren Till, outside his natural weight class, and that’s about it – and Usman bullied him against the cage for five boring rounds when they met the first time. With Masvidal at age 36 and with a lot of miles on him, I don’t see any reason that even with a full training camp, the second fight will go any differently.
Every other plan has been completely ruined by the Edwards eye poke, however. Edwards still hasn’t won an MMA fight in nearly two years, and when you look closely, he has only one win over a fighter currently ranked in the top 15: a 2017 win over now-No. 10 Vicente Luque. Colby Covington has remained weirdly outside the immediate title picture despite giving Usman the toughest fight of his UFC career in 2019 – Edwards-Covington, as a No. 1 contender fight, may be the bout to make, but there has been little update on any plans.
Gilbert Burns needs time to rebuild after getting knocked out by Usman. Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, as always, seems like he’s searching anywhere for opponents. This is turning into a division. Usman seems to only be getting better and better, and 170 has moved slower than almost any division in the sport. This no contest only made things worse. It feels tough to justify not giving Muhammad another crack at Edwards after such a brutal ending, but it would only compound the problem the top of the welterweight division has.
Just a few days ago, the plans seemed set. Edwards would beat Muhammad, face Usman in a few months, and then maybe Usman and Masvidal would coach the next Ultimate Fighter season and we’d move on from there. But Leon Edwards couldn’t keep his fingers to himself, and now here we are: a bad title rematch, a division with seemingly less direction than ever, and bad vibes all around.
Let’s start by fixing the gloves, OK?
The Big Fight 