Tag: mixed martial arts

Leon Edwards wins welterweight title at UFC 278

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Leon Edwards is the new UFC welterweight Champion.

At Saturday’s UFC 278 event, Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman by knockout after he connected a head kick at 4:04 of round 5. This ends Usman’s run with the welterweight title after 1,267 days, originally defeating Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 on March 2, 2019.

“We were writing his obituary,” said Daniel Corimer on commentary. During the fifth round, announcers had speculated that Edwards had been defeated, as Usman had been in control of most of the match heading into the final round.

“I told it was possible we could win a belt from the UK,” Edwards, who is from Birmingham, said in his post-fight interview. “I told you. Now look at me now! Look at me now! I told you I could do it!”

The two previously fought in 2015, with Usman winning the fight by unanimous decision. This was only the second loss of Usman’s career, losing his second-ever fight to Jose Caceres back in 2013. 

Max Holloway off UFC 226 due to concussion-like symptoms

Posted on by Bryan Rose

For the third time this year, Max Holloway has been pulled from a UFC card.

Ariel Helwani reported tonight that Holloway is off Saturday’s UFC 226 pay-per-view due to what his management team described as concussion-like symptoms after not appearing normal in the last week.

“He was showing concussion like symptoms before he even started his weight cut and was rushed to the ER on Monday where they admitted him over night,” Holloway’s management team wrote in a statement to ESPN. “Initial scans seemed okay and he was released Tuesday afternoon but symptoms still continued.

“Max fought with his team to continue with the fight. He showed some improvement over the next day but was still showing obvious symptoms. After open workouts he crashed and was very hard to wake up, when he did he had flashing vision and slurred speech.”

They noted that Holloway is now back in the ER for further tests.

Holloway was scheduled to defend his featherweight title against Brian Ortega in the semi-main event of Saturday’s PPV in Las Vegas before having to be pulled. Ortega’s status for the show hasn’t been made clear as of this writing.

UFC 226 will be headlined by Daniel Cormier challenging for Stipe Miocic’s heavyweight title.

Holloway this year has had to pull out of fights against Frankie Edgar and Khabib Nurmagomedov, the latter of which was for the UFC lightweight championship. Holloway took the bout with Nurmagomedov on short notice and was pulled during his weight-cut, while a leg injury kept him from facing Edgar.