Leon Edwards’ coach Dave Lovell has lifted the lid on Edwards’ turbulent build-up to UFC 304, and praised Belal Muhammad for his performance in victory in Manchester.
Chatting to Submission Radio, Lovell discussed a number of topics surrounding Edwards’ unanimous decision loss to Muhammad at the Co-op Live, as “Rocky” lost his undisputed UFC welterweight title in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Lovell said that Edwards was heartbroken after losing his belt on home soil, saying, “He took the loss. It more hurts him mentally than physically, because literally all he had was a couple of mouses under the eye.
“But emotionally, his performance, he was broken hearted over it. But physically, he’s OK. Just mentally a bit, you know, traumatised.”
Lovell said that Muhammad fought exactly how he needed to get the victory, and credited him for executing his gameplan to perfection. But he also revealed that Edwards was hampered by a niggling back problem heading into fight night.
“We never expected anything different. He did what a wrestler’s supposed to do against a striker, and his gameplan came off,” he said.
“Where Leon was concerned, I’m not making any kind of excuses for him, but we had a few niggles in camp. His back was niggling him, so he couldn’t wrestle the way he really needed to, offensively and defensively, because of the niggle that recurred about maybe two or three times.
“But I’m not taking nothing away from Belal’s performance, you know. He did well. The best man won on the night. But Leon will be back.”
“Believe it or not, we had a pow wow about it, and I was very dubious, because these Nnggles were going on for about maybe five or so weeks, on and off,” he said.
“He had to go to a chiropractor (for) regular massages. But again, after one session, it was back to square one. So in the back part of my mind, I was thinking, well, should we go for this? But because he hadn’t fought for so long, Leon said he wanted it. So we just pushed forward with the injury, trained through the injury and tried to get through and get the victory. Unfortunately, it never happened.”
As a striking coach himself, Lovell had some words of praise for Muhammad’s striking, which had levelled up noticeably since his first meeting with Edwards three years ago.
“Definitely, his striking has improved. I don’t know about him being Canelo, but his striking has improved in the last three years since he first met Leon,” he smiled.
“But it was a case of Leon running out of gas, Belal smelling it, smelling that he was running out of gas, and pushing the issue. So it is what it is. It’s the fight game, and you can have a bad day at the office, but in this case, he’s lost his title.”
Lovell explained that the gameplan was for Edwards to hold the middle of the Octagon and not allow himself to get pushed up against the cage. But on the night he was unable to consistently stop Muhammad from doing just that, and it contributed directly to his defeat.
“Leon tried in parts of the fight to hold the middle, to try and push Belal on the back foot, because that was part of the game plan,” he explained.
“But obviously, he didn’t have the gas to maintain it, so Belal just (pushed) forward and got the win.”
Lovell called the through-the-night timings “a joke,” and questioned why a defending champion would be put in such a disadvantageous position on home soil.
“Belal never really had to adjust, because his clock is set to the times of what we were fighting to,” he explained.
“But Leon, in his own country, had to adapt as if he was acclimatising, as if he was fighting in another country and fighting at 5:30am in the morning. It just doesn’t seem right somehow. But it is what it is.”
Lovell also said that he harboured absolutely no anomosity or ill will towards Muhammad, and put the new champion’s pre-fight words down to banter, saying he has absolutely issue with Muhammad whatsoever.
“I’ve got no animosity towards Belal, leading up to it, or after,” he said.
“Listen, the man’s a fighter, and he’s fighting for a position that Leon was in. I shook his hand after the fight, I shook his father’s hand, so there’s no animosity from where I’m concerned.
“The thing that happened in the elevator was a bit of pre-fight banter. We’re not an aggressive crew of lads, we don’t try to intimidate our opponents, it was just Belal, through his talk, sort of like built up a little drama. And it was just fight banter at the end of the day.”
Now, it’s the job of Lovell, manager Tim Simpson and the rest of Edwards’ team to pick Edwards back up, and get him back in the mix again so he can position himself to challenge for the title again further down the line.
“The team spoke to him, and all the coaches. He’s heartbroken over it, which is understandable,” said Lovell.
“And the fashion he lost it, that’s what’s really getting to him – the way he lost. We wouldn’t have minded if he’d lost and he’d put his heart and soul into it and it was a blood, sweat and guts fight, and he lost and the better man won on the night, we’ve got no problem with that, because we’re fighters.
“But when you lose and you know you haven’t given your all, for whatever reason, it’s heart rendering, it’s heartbreaking. And Leon won’t settle on that, we’ll rebuild him now. We’ve had a little pep talk with him, get Tim to start throwing some names, because he’s got to start shouting out and making some noise. We’ve Tim to start straight away working on the UFC, Hunter, Dana etc. and see what they come up with in the near future.”
And, when the topic of discussion turned to Edwards’ next opponent, Lovell said he understood why Dana White wasn’t keen on an immediate rematch, and instead suggested that the UFC could book a UK versus Ireland clash, with Edwards taking on Ian Machado Garry.
“I’d like to see Leon fight Ian Garry,” he said.
“Obviously we can keep it British based. Either Ireland or over here. As you know, their little background story we had going back last year. He’s looking for a scalp. Now, Leon’s not champion, he may think, well, it is a good scalp for him to get to a championship belt or a title shot. And for Leon, if Leon’s beats him that then puts him at the back of the queue. And then maybe, if they want one more before he fights Belal – if Belal’s still got the belt – well, that would be the future move, the future plan.”
But if Leon gets back to a title shot and Muhammad doesn’t have the title, and it’s someone like Shavkat Rakhmonov holding the gold, Lovell said that would suit Edwards just fine.
“Yeah, because Shavkat’s got that come-forward style. His guard ain’t the best in the world, and that would suit Leon as a sharpshooter,” he explained.
“Obviously, Leon would put the wrestling correct (but) I think Shavkat would have a stand-up (war) rather than go to ground with Leon.”
