UFC 286 Aftermath: How Leon Edwards’ Clinch Work Won the Day

UFC 286 marked the end of the trilogy between two of the best welterweights on the planet. On one side: Kamaru Usman, the former champ and pound-for-pound king looking to get his title back. On the other was Leon Edwards, a long-lost rival who had come from the past to dethrone him. When it was all said and done it was the new blood, Edwards, that became the king and took home the third and final match between the two welterweight greats, weltergreats if you will.

Today we are going to break down the third fight between Edwards and Usman. We will look at certain techniques that were successful for each fighter. So, without further ado, Aftermath!

Usman: Timid and Father Time

Usman’s 15-fight win streak has put him down as one of the best to ever do it. That streak even included a young Edwards, but Edwards took his time and became the anti-Usman and it showed in this third and final fight.

Usman managed to get Edwards down at multiple points at UFC 286, but the takedowns weren’t accepted by Edwards, who fought out of each one, making Usman’s efforts in vain. Usman couldn’t inflict any of his accustomed damage due to Edwards being able to get up from the takedowns. No ground-and-pound, no suffering, nothing. Usman couldn’t keep Edwards down and that ultimately cost him the fight.

All night, Usman constantly sought the takedown to get the fight into his arena. In the third round, as seen in the diagram above, we see Usman doing just that. (1) Usman steps in big on a single-leg take down. Notice in the circled portion that Usman uses the foot stomp to slow Edward’s retraction of the leg so he can get in on the single. (2) Now that Usman has the single wrapped up, Edwards goes for the two on one grip and looks to muscle Usman’s takedown away. Usman is thinking ahead and knows from experience that Edwards can wall-walk up the fence and Usman will (3) turn Edwards away from the fence to keep him away and hopefully down to the ground. Before Edwards can scrape off the grip, (4) Usman lifts Edwards knee high in the air and raising his center of gravity. Quickly, (5) Usman snaps the leg down and out and gets Edwards to the mat.

Usman also came out looking timid and slower. I don’t know if it was Father Time or a product of being knocked out in such spectacular fashion in their last fight, but something about Usman seemed off. But, as the old saying goes, Father Time is undefeated, and the time is now for Edwards’ era. Usman s locked himself in as a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame and when his time comes, he will be inducted on the first ballot.

Edwards: King

As we talked about in Beforemath, Edwards was seen by some as the illegitimate king of the UFC welterweight division. After being bullied by Usman from the second to fifth round, Edwards finished Usman with that incredible high kick and took home the belt. UFC 286 marked his defense of the title and his homecoming to the O2 Arena, and he put on an almost perfect performance.

Edwards must be a Sherdog Beforemath reader because his game plan was near identical to the path we laid out earlier last week. Edwards went 50-for-53 on low kicks against Usman, which was his main point of attack. Usman was limited in his mobility as the fight went on from those low kicks which were essentially free because of the threat of the high kick established by Edwards in the second fight.

In fact, Edwards worked incredibly precisely on the feet all night, landing a mind boggling 74% of his total strikes against Usman. It was smart decision making in tandem with his high work rate that saw Edwards win the fight against the former champion. In addition to the low kicks, Edwards also consistently went to the body of Usman to set up the same high kick from before. That high kick wouldn’t come, but Edwards would reap the benefits with the cardio gap later in the fight, but the main factor that led Edwards to victory was his grappling.

Right after the takedown shown in the previous section, Edwards would begin to work. Shortly after being taken down, Edwards shrimps his hips out to his right and gets his left arm between he and Usman. To keep Edwards on the ground, Usman will keep his right arm around Edwards. But the shrimp does something else, it takes away the ground and pound with that arm, isolating the left arm of Usman. Usman can’t punch him without the threat of Edwards exploding up from having his hips free. If Usman wants to strike with his right, he cannot hit Edwards in the back of the head either. Knowing this, Edwards will use his left hand to block his face and his right hand to fight the left of Usman with wrist control, as seen in the graphic, and to frame off the bicep to keep him from landing significant strikes. This was just one of the many ways Edwards made the ground game for Usman a nightmare (pun intended) for the entire fight.

Edwards also made it a point to grab the whizzer and peel off any takedown Usman would shoot. He fought the hands all night and made everything Usman tied to do just a fraction harder. Fighting the hands didn’t allow Usman to keep his hands locked and any time Edwards grabbed the underhook, Usman would exit the exchange as to not end up on the ground like he did in the first round of the second fight.

Another thing done well by Edwards was taking care of his positioning with his footwork. In the first two fights, Edwards was caught against the fence with Usman eventually working his way to a takedown. While the hand fighting in the grappling sequences was his best work, Edwards tried to not stay stationary along the cage to not let Usman get a chance to shoot. In our third diagram, we see (1) Usman pushing Edwards back and looking for a take down and some of the big blows he found success with in the first fight. Edwards drilled this a ton leading up to the third fight and it paid off. (2) Edwards would shift to his right and Usman would think that he had a 1-2 (jab followed by a cross) lined up. Notice how Usman lowered and loaded up the right hand to throw the power shot. Edwards would see this as well and (3) quickly shift to his left and throw a left hook. Usman picked up on it in time, but the left hook would provide cover for Edwards to exit the exchange.

To keep Usman even more honest against the fence, Edwards also punished Usman for taking ill-timed shots. (1) Once again, Usman pressured Edwards against the fence looking for body work and a takedown. (2) Edwards grabs the collar tie as Usman is looking straight down at his feet. Edwards would step out to his left with his left leg, lining up the knee. (3) Holding Usman’s head down, Edwards throws the left knee and snaps Usman’s head up.

With the shifting, the hand fighting, and the damage in the clinch, Edwards forced Usman to shift how he fought at the end of the fight. Once he knew Usman knew he needed a finish and that Usman would come forward looking for something on the feet, Edwards was comfortable to work in the pocket. The next diagram is pretty long so bear with me on this one as I explain the magic of Edwards in the pocket.

(1) Usman is coming forward and wants to land the 1-2 that scored his knockout against Jorge Masvidal. (2) The 1-2 has been thrown all night and with Usman being tired from the body work, Edwards sees it coming and parries it down and away. (3) Edwards then counters with a right hand that lands clean. Usman wants to fire back. Instead of exiting, Edwards would (4) block the oncoming jab, again slow, with his elbow and a clear view on the lowered and chambered right of Usman. (5) Usman throws that right and Edwards slips to his left. It’s the natural movement of this slip that loads up the next strike that Edwards wants to throw: (6) a rear uppercut that lands clean on the sternum of Usman. With the uppercut and the straight left that Edwards served up, Usman now wants to clinch. Head down, Usman grabs for the head of Edwards to initiate a clinch. (7) Just as before, Edwards throws that left knee that lands, this one a bit more off the mark. Finally (8) while still in the clinch, Edwards grabs the left arm of Usman tight and fires the left elbow on the exit of the exchange.

In the end, Edwards closed the book on any doubt of his title reign. His win over Usman showed that the first fight was no fluke and that he’s truly the cream of the crop when it comes to the welterweight division. Names like Colby Covington have been thrown around as well as Masvidal and Gilbert Burns. With Edwards working to become the antithesis of Usman, it will be interesting to see how he matches up with other top fighters in the division, regardless of who is next.