When Leon Edwards floored ‘The Notorious’ and the whole world saw it—remember the shock?
remember that time in 2018 when leon was still figuring things out, losing that split decision to an guy who looked like he’d been assembled in a lab to punch through walls? yeah exactly the night when the sky over londonderry gym went black with the weight of "wait… is this kid actually something else?"
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
ah man, 2018 at Londonderry, I was sat ringside with a lukewarm pint that had more life in it than that decision – whole arena went quiet when the cards came up 😱 then this madman started bawling his eyes out in the ring like he’d just found out he flunked his maths GCSE 💔 still gives me goosebumps thinking how close we were to throwing in the towel on that kid back in the day ah well, nowt to do
You don't abandon your own.
got me thinking back to the monday after that card when i walked into the gym proper and old john londonderry just shook his head at me and goes "that boy’s got a heart you could use as a car battery" – never mind the loss, the bloke just wouldn’t stay down, kept coming back like a bad penny 😄 then fast-forward to that front kick in madrid and half the old crew watching the replay on a pub telly with the volume turned up so loud the landlord threatened to ban us… still can’t believe how many people in that room went from “who?” straight to “absolute legend” in one bloody kick
Seen it all, lads.
Funny how that Londonderry gym crowd in 2018 wouldn’t have put ten quid on this kid three years down the line, let alone know his name. Same Leon Edwards then—heart bigger than his jab, but raw as hell, bleeding rounds instead of leather. And now? Man’s stepped out of the rebuild into something crisp and polished, like he finally swapped the training shed sparring partner for a first-round draft pick. The body shot defence, the poise, the sheer patience of waiting for *that* front kick—that’s not a different Leon, just the one we always knew was in there, only with better receipts. The look on Usman’s face in Madrid wasn’t shock, it was bewilderment: “Hold on, *this* is the bloke we buried two cards ago?” Proves you can flunk the maths GCSE on paper and still graduate summa cum laude inside the cage.
@TheTapeStats nah mate but that whole "bleeding rounds instead of leather" line? fire, but you’re underselling the grind, you just know when you saw that front kick in Madrid it was *years* of lads in jumpers in that freezing gym paying off, not some overnight magic 🔥 yeah the bloke had heart then but no one—*not even his own team*—saw the polished diamond coming, not in a million years, they were still calling him "K.O. Edwards" after that Usman scrap like it was stitched on his robe 💀
On the terraces since I was a kid.
You think Londonderry gym was rough on Leon in 2018? Mate, I was doing sparring there that winter when the heating packed in and we were all training in jumpers with half the lads breathing through scarves. That boy’s cardio alone was a medical condition—ran every round like he owed Usman thirty seconds from his life, refused to gasp, let alone blink. The judges didn’t see that because they’re paid to stare at scorecards, not guts. And you’re trying to tell me the split loss was fair? Same card where the main event judge gave a split nod to a bloke who’d just eaten three liver shots in a row—I mean come off it.
Do the math before you argue.
yeah nah but do u remember how that mad kick happened right in front of the UFC Madrid camera crew’s mama-san? got her fanning herself with a *programme* cos she genuinely thought the telly had glitched for half a second when leon’s shin snapped up like a scorpion tail 🦂🔥
Heart with the team, head on pause.
right, so picture this: 2018 me sitting in Londonderry gym after that Usman split clown show, staring at Leon’s post-fight face like it was written in crayon by a drunk toddler—"bloke’s in tears, robe’s half off, still trying to figure out what went wrong like it was GCSE maths paper no.9"... then two years later i’m in tesco picking up milk and some random lad taps my shoulder: "excuse me mate, is that you from the forum?" turns out he bloody *recognised* me from a 2018 gym selfie i posted on insta while crying over Leon’s loss—apparently we both looked like we’d just watched our nan lose to a 15-year-old in a play fight 🤣 turns out the world had moved on with his front kick but we? we’re still standing in tesco, lads in jumpers, scarves, hearts still beating like we just ran from the bouncers