Leon Edwards offers piece of advice to Khamzat Chimaev

Streaking UFC welterweight contender Leon Edwards has some advice for Khamzat Chimaev, who has recently made many high-profile callouts.

Chimaev is easily the most hyped prospect in MMA at present, having gone 3-0 since July, with wins over John Phillips, Rhys McKee and most recently, Gerald Meerschaert. On the heels of those wins, the welterweight and middleweight super-prospect has called for fights with the likes of Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya, Conor McGregor, Jorge Masvidal, Nick Diaz, Demian Maia and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. Edwards, however, believes the Sweden-based Russian is getting a bit ahead of himself.

“As far as Chimaev, he’s only had what one fight at welterweight against a lightweight guy?” Edwards told MMA Fighting of Khamzat Chimaev. “It’s hard to judge from that. When he’s calling me out, I don’t really pay attention. It is what it is. I don’t really pay attention too much.

“He has to at least beat somebody in the top-f**king-25 before you go straight to f**king fight No. 3,” Edwards added. “At least fight somebody in the top-25 or -30 first.

“Then we can go and start talking from there, but the MMA community is literally… if you feed them anything, they’ll buy into it. It is what it is.”

Leon Edwards is currently on an eight-fight win-streak in the UFC welterweight division, highlighted by victories over the likes of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, Gunnar Nelson and Rafael dos Anjos. Unfortunately, he has not fought in well over a year. The Brit was expected to take on Tyron Woodley in London earlier in 2020, but that plan unfortunately fell through due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since that nixed fight with Woodley, Edwards has struggled greatly to find a willing dance partner. Recently, he was called out by the two-time welterweight title challenger “Wonderboy” Thompson, but he made no secret of his disinterest in that matchup.