UFC 296 Edwards vs Covington | 16 Dec 23 | |||||
UFC 286 Usman vs Edwards | 18 Mar 23 | |||||
UFC Fight Night 147 Till vs Masvidal | 16 Mar 19 | |||||
UFC Fight Night 132 Cowboy vs Edwards | 23 Jun 18 | |||||
Leon Edwards (born 25 August 1991) is an English professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Welterweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the current UFC Welterweight Champion. A professional competitor since 2011, Edwards formerly competed for BAMMA, where he was the BAMMA Welterweight Champion. As of 7 March 2023, he is #4 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings.
Early life
Edwards was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and lived with his parents and his brother in a one-room house. Growing up, he was surrounded by crime, and his father was involved in what he describes as "questionable activities". Edwards moved to the Aston area of Birmingham, England at nine years old. In the early hours of the 2 October 2004, when Edwards was 13 years old, his father was shot and killed in a nightclub in Croydon, London. He was then involved in criminal activity such as drug dealing, street fighting, and knife possession along with others in his social circle, but was able to get out of his lifestyle at age 17, when his mother got him to join an MMA club.