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Colby Covington: Leon Edwards Should Retire After UFC London Loss
Colby Covington: Leon Edwards Should Retire After UFC London Loss
At UFC London, Sean Brady landed a guillotine choke in the fourth round to defeat Leon Edwards. Colby Covington, one of Edwards’ former opponents, is calling for the former champion to retire.
Covington gave his opinion on Edwards’ performance in an interview with Submission Radio. All quotes via TheScore MMA.
“I kind of thought that after I fought Leon, the motivation wasn’t there anymore,” Covington said on Tuesday’s edition of “Submission Radio.” “I could tell in the fight – I broke my foot immediately and he did nothing. He didn’t try and come after me. He just tried to point-coast to a decision. I could tell after that fight he just wasn’t hungry anymore.
“He’s made too much money. I made him too much money at that press conference. I just don’t think he’s motivated anymore, and he should hang them up.”
Edwards, 33, has been on a slide in his recent outings. The former champion lost his title against Belal Muhammad. That was followed with a submission loss to Brady. In that pair of losses, he was outgrappling and showed serious flaws.
Ironically, Edwards’ most recent victory came against Covington. In that fight, Covington had practically no grappling success and lost dominantly. If anything, Covington, 37, is sitting on a string of unwhelming performances. His critiques of Edwards could be said about himself.
It is not time to cast Edwards to the side. The grappling flaws in his game have been exposed against Brady and Muhammad. In those performances, those fighters unlocked the key to defeating Edwards when Kamaru Usman and Covington had bigger struggles.
Edwards has time to make improvements and get back to the top of the welterweight division. Plus, he has already fought a majority of the division’s high-level grapplers. His future fights are likely to be easier stylistic matchups.
Covington is currently 2-4 in his last six fights. The losses may have come against elite fighters, but his wins came against Jorge Masvidal and Tyron Woodley. If he can’t get in the win column soon, he will need to contemplate retirement.
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