Leon Edwards' striking coach explains the technique behind his incredible KO of Kamaru Usman

Leon Edwards‘ incredible head-kick knockout of Kamaru Usman was no happy accident, his striking coach Henry Cleminson has insisted.

The UFC welterweight champion locked horns with his predecessor at the summit of the welterweight division last weekend in the main event of UFC 278 in Salt Lake City.

Usman’s bid to defend the welterweight title for the sixth time in a row ended in the fifth round of his rematch with Edwards, with ‘Rocky’ winning the contest via knockout thanks to a left high kick.

Afterwards, after congratulating Edwards on his victory, Usman described it as the perfect ‘Hail Mary’.

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However, according to Cleminson, they planned for that exact moment during Edwards’ training camp for his welterweight showdown with Usman.

Cleminson told MMA Junkie: “It wasn’t a technique that I think was going to be there early doors.

“Without going into huge details about what we’re doing, there’s a lot of strategy. We drilled a lot of things with that. You can’t just go and throw a head kick, especially early doors.

“He’s probably going to be fresh, reactions are high. I thought it was a technique that was going to land later on with some of the work he’d done throughout the fight. I thought I would see him throw caution to the wind earlier on, but it was something we were strategizing to set up.

“I was pretty confident that Usman at some point was going to move away from the punch to that side, and Leon saw it. If you’re going to be ducking into head kicks, these things would happen. I’ve pulled up some video and cut some video footage of the Colby [Covington] fight, [Rafael dos Anjos] as well, and he does it numerous