Edwards-Usman UFC trilogy set for Sunday 

MANILA, Philippines – Kamaru Usman versus Leon Edwards.

The Trilogy. The rubber match. 

This match-up could end up as one of the great trilogies alongside Georges-St. Pierre and Matt Hughes, Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort, Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos, Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz, B.J. Penn and Matt Hughes, and Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture — clashes that helped elevate the mixed martial arts and the UFC to the mainstream. 

On August 20 last year, Edwards scored a sensational kick that knocked out Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title. That evened the series after the Englishman absorbed a unanimous decision loss to Usman in December of 2015.

Now, Edwards’ first mandatory defense will find him taking on Usman, who will stop at nothing to regain the title.

Will it be the start of Edwards’ reign or was it just a fluke victory? 

During that rematch, Edwards got the first ever takedown on Usman in the first round, but the erstwhile champion came back strong in the next rounds prompting the former’s corner to plea rather urgently before the final round, “to not allow Usman to bully him” and “to work that jab.” 

In the fifth and final round, with about two minutes left and what was perceived as being on his way to a loss, Edwards began landing kicks that foreshadowed the knockout. With 58 seconds left, Edwards landed a solid kick to the left jaw of Usman and had him falling like a marionette whose strings had been cut. 

Edwards had done the improbable by beating Usman.

And now, for the first time in his war with Usman, Edwards is oozing with confidence. 

In fact, he is talking smack, “Usman is on his way out. I’ll open that door to follow his fashion dreams.”

“Even on my worst day, I knocked Usman out.”

Ouch.

Shot back Usman, “Edwards has shown me nothing that he is the better MMA fighter.”

This will all be settled this Sunday, March 19, when UFC 286 is televised live in the Philippines at 5 a.m. on the Premier Sports Channel on Skycable and Cignal as well as on the TapGo TV streaming application.