Edwards knew he was losing the fight with Usman

Freshly crowned UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards recalled his recent fight with Kamaru Usman. He said that before the start of the fifth round, he knew he was losing the fight and could only win by knockout.

"Between the fourth and fifth round, I was aware that I needed a knockout to be champion because I was losing the fight. I knew that when I went out for the fifth round. At halftime my coach would say, "Look, it's the last round. Get active, you know? We worked too hard. Your way has been too hard for you to just give it all up like that." That's the motivation I needed. My team knows what buttons to push. That's exactly what they did."

As a reminder, Edwards knocked out Usman in the last minute of the fifth round.