UFC 278: Israel Adesanya’s stunned reaction to Leon Edwards’ KO over Kamaru Usman

UFC star Israel Adesanya had a stunned reaction to Leon Edwards’ win over Kamaru Usman at UFC 278.

Last Saturday night in Salt Lake City, Leon Edwards shocked the world.

The man known as ‘Rocky’ pulled off one of the upsets of the year as he knocked Kamaru Usman out cold in the fifth round to become the new UFC welterweight champion. The victory ranks up there with some of the most remarkable conclusions to a title fight in MMA history as Edwards, who many believed was 3-1 down on the scorecards, pulled out the head kick of a lifetime to put an end to the historic reign of ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, becoming just the second British UFC champion in the process.

The life of Edwards is set to change forever courtesy of this monumental result and as you can imagine, many members of the UFC roster were watching closely to see what went down.

That included Israel Adesanya who, after predicting Usman to beat Edwards, watched as Leon put his fellow African champion’s lights out.

‘Stylebender’ went on to give his thoughts on how it all transpired.

“What a finish – a real life Rocky story, goes with his name, Leon ‘Rocky’ Edwards, the new UFC welterweight champion.”

“It’s bittersweet. I’m so happy for Leon and Tim [from Paradigm Sports], but then I’m so sad for Kamaru. But then, also I know, the rematch, they’re gonna have a rematch clause or something.”

“Leon was winning the first round, Kamaru said right, step it up in the second, third and fourth, then in the fifth round, Leon just switched on. Even I thought he was getting discouraged because he was getting taken down, and this and that, and his coaches gave him that speech. 

“This is the game, we really do this s***. Congrats to both men, Leon Edwards, the welterweight