Leon Edwards suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in his career this Saturday when he was dominated by Sean Brady in the UFC London main event.
After being dominated by Belal Muhammad at UFC 304, Leon Edwards knew he had to bounce back with his next performance to remain near the top of the welterweight division.
Despite that, the British fans were left gutted and leaving the O2 arena early on Saturday night at UFC London, as Edwards was utterly dominated by Sean Brady, who subsequently went on to hand him his first stoppage loss of his career.
Having climbed to the very peak of the mountain and doing what no other British fighter before him could do, ‘Rocky’s’ career is now in an extremely precarious position.
Edwards must avoid similar fate to Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, and others
Following UFC London, Edwards joins an unfortunate group of fighters with his loss. Former UFC champions are now 1-6 in the promotion during 2025 with Jiri Prochazka being the only former champion to pick up a win so far this year.
However, things could go from bad to worse for the 33-year-old if history has anything to do with it.
Time and time again we have seen UFC champions lose their titles and go on legacy ruining losing skids, and despite still getting considered as being one of the greatest of all time, Anderson Silva was one of them.
‘The Spider’ completely tarnished his legacy, especially to a newer era of the fanbase as after losing his middleweight title, Silva went on to lose six fights in a row.
Another example of monumental downfalls is when Chuck Liddell lost his title in 2007, going on to lose four of his next five fights.
By no means am I suggesting the 33-year-old considers a premature retirement but I am suggesting he picks his next opponent extremely wisely.
And fortunately for Edwards, there are two that make perfect sense.
Leon Edwards needs to pick either Jorge Masvidal or Ian Machado Garry next
Back in 2019 at UFC London after Edwards narrowly beat Gunnar Nelson, he and Jorge Masvidal got involved in a run-in backstage which resulted in Masvidal cheap shotting the Brit.
The infamous ‘Three piece and a soda’ still gets spoken about to this day with Edwards and Masvidal being huge rivals. Despite that, they bizarrely have never fought inside the Octagon.
The promotion attempted to capitalize on their rivalry in 2021 but ‘Gamebred’ withdrew from their fight as he preferred a fight against his other longtime rival, Colby Covington.
Masvidal is looking for a route back into the UFC after leaving in 2021 and this makes perfect sense for both fighters, giving Edwards his desired striker vs striker matchup.
However, there is another option for ‘Rocky’.
After spending some time at Edwards’ gym in Birmingham, Irish prospect, Ian Machado Garry was asked to leave, resulting in a tense rivalry between the two.
‘The Future’ is coming off a narrow defeat to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310 and is looking to return to the title picture with a win in his next fight.
A fight between these two 170lbers would give both a chance to get back into title contention, whilst also capitalising on a feud that is already in place.
Edwards is managed by one of the best in the game, Tim Simpson, and he surely has to demand that Edwards’ next fight comes against one of the aforementioned two if he wants to reignite his career.