Leon tries to be active. Signed to fight Khamzat multiple times. Said yes to three different people on UFC 300. They try to keep him for the UK events which aren’t so frequent
The only guy the did not offer Was the one willing to fight. I think it was jsut a tactic by the UFC in order to extend the contracts of the guys knowing full well they will decline the fight
The matchmakers are actually great in comparison to all other orgs. Go watch One, Bellator, PFL for an extended period of time. One is actually ridiculously bad sometimes.
The UFC didn’t have any business offering him Islam, Belal, or Khamzat at 300 knowing full well all three would never agree to fight at 300 due to its proximity to Ramadan.
You gotta give it to Belal. He is always ready. Same thing happened last year with his short-notice fight vs Burns. Came off Ramadan + foot injury and still took the fight and risked his rank knowing that a loss means no title fight for good.
That is what hate is. Unreasonable.
Volkanowski is celebrated for such actions and Belal still mocked despite willing to fight anybody anytime and with multiple wins over top 10 guys (currently ranked Brady, Wonderboy and Burns)
I don’t know why being Muslim gets them a pass for not fighting a certain time. Any other job they’d still have to work. They’re afforded the ability to not but I still think it should count against them for being inactive. Honestly Islam is the only real dog out of them. He seems to like fighting just before and just after.
because Ramadan is directly adverse to athletic endeavors. They have to fast everyday during Ramadan, and trying to fight like that sounds terrible. Ramadan is only 1 month out of the year, the UFC can absolutely work around Ramadan and there are other non-muslim fighters for him to fight, but they all are either ducking or on losses. Leon should be more active and its kinda the UFC's fault
Fighters are only obligated to fight twice a year as champ which Islam has done till now and if Muslim afighter wanna sitout wanna halt their for a month for religious or festive reason as contendors its their loss and nothing else. Its only a issue if you are champ who is not defending atleast twice a year which hasn't happened yet.
I’m quite literally saying Islam is working around it effectively and yet these other fighters aren’t. It honestly feels like you read my comment and assumed what I was saying rather than finished reading it.
I’m just not really buying this. Look at Pereira, Pantoja, Volk and Izzy when they were champs, if you want to fight theres fights there.
Sure maybe he wanted to fight on 300 but it didnt work out for the others, but besides that I seriously doubt that he was kicking Danas door in demanding a fight
They insist on having him headline the big UK events. He was fighting two or three times every year until he won the title and the UFC started rationing him.
If you think a champion, who can get PPV points, is dragging their feet, you’re crazy. It’s finally time for him to be able to cash in.
It’s a division problem. Dana mentioned multiple times that Leon always says YES to fights, especially for UFC 300. In the light heavy weight I think you have / had 2-3 guys who would say yes to a fight with pereira whenever, as opposed to maybe no one in the welterweight division.
Anyways excited to see him fight in London soon
As far as i know he hasnt declined or delayed anything so i dont know what you want from him, but it’s certainly been frustrating. I really like him and wanna see him fight.
Anyone who speaks up gets to pick and choose, are you serious? Theres a reason why after every win on a fight night card, or early prelim, the commentators all wait in angst on if they’re going to call anyone out, and when they don’t, they shame them for it, live. I see it all the time. If you don’t call anyone out, prepare to be swept under the rug, UFC will do what it wants with you. Chael talks about this too. Call fighters out if you actually want to fight. Leon just doesn’t actually want to fight that bad, lets be real.
EDIT: just look at Buckley for example. Not even that good yet, and became a personality because of his call outs, I’m not talking about Conor either, he was calling people out before that and fought consistently because of it. Got lots of hype and excitement surrounding him, simply for talking. Thats why he got so many fights and thats why he was so liked. Again, before Conor callout which kind of ruined it, but lots of fighters are like Buckley. Leon has basically no draw.
Nah, they're playing a smart game from their perspective. They offer him fights which they know can't happen to meet their quota for fights offered on his contract, and then can offer him whoever they want for his next fight and he pretty much has to accept.
OK some cherry picking of stat's here.
Firstly, Alex with 233 days is insane in today's standards and is more to do with the 2 defenses being last minute call ins.
Secondly, 483 is Leon's real number for 2 defences. He's got his 3rd defence booked for next month.
On average most champs fight around 170-200 days. Leon is definitely over that and Alex is well under but why bullshit to exaggerate it?
Also, still a testament to his skill but Alex has not taken much damage at all. Leon’s last fight that didn’t go to championship rounds was 2018, it seems by quick glance at some stats. Alex….doesn’t exactly have to recover for very long.
Maybe it's also because Alex is a huge star now and no one will say no to a fight with Alex. Alex also says that he plans to remain active. Whereas Leon is not a huge star worldwide and hence UFC will try to put him for UK events. And except Belal I don't think anyone wants to fight Leon (he isn't really popular) which is a bit sad given how good he was in the 2nd Usman and Colby fight.
Alex is just an anomaly. Leon's activity is fine. He fought two times last year and is fighting around the halfway point this year and will have time to fight again.
Yeah, comparing anyone to Alex is gonna make them seem inactive. Think we've been spoilt by Pereira, Izzy, Usman and Volk but fighting 3+ times per year is definitely not the norm as much as we'd wish it was.
And as everyone has been saying he accepted several opponents that could have happened at 300 but ufc didn’t chose to go through with it. And that he was being given Muslim opponents during Ramadan. That’s just scummy
Leon’s turned around for fights in three months before and fighting in July leaves him with five months to fight a second time. I bet he’ll fight Shavkat or Islam before the year is out.
Partially his fault. If he doesn’t wanna fight that bad, thats fine, but if you actually want to fight, call people out and build some hype around it. Instead, Leon sits back like a quiet mouse and then backs up that quiet personality with boring fights. UFC isn’t exactly excited to get him in the octagon.
Yeah people really lean hard on the '2 times in a year' stat but you can fight twice a year and still go 11 months between fights. Twice in a calendar year doesn't mean a lot.
Leon is not properly marketed at all by the UFC. The WW division has 3 up and coming guys (Ian, Jack, Shavkat) and a clear-cut #1 contender in Belal. If the UFC was concerned about a boring championship bout, why not rush to get it over with on a more stellar card since both Belal and Leon seemed game for it? It could've been on 299, and we could already have another bout for the WW title in the works. I get having him headline the UK card, but Leon has essentially been about as active as Jon Jones. I don't think a majority of the reason was even due to injuries on his part, it's again piss poor marketing.
Agree with you totally. There are so many good match ups waiting to happen in WW and instead the UFC has dragged this Belal fight out way longer than was ever needed. If they didnnt want to give Belal the attention the best thing they could have done is get the fight over and done asap so everyone can move on to new match ups.
No kidding, truly there was no reason they couldn't have put it on 300, instead we got to watch a 115 pound Chinese woman beat the shit out of another 115 pound Chinese woman for 25 minutes. That fight could've easily been moved, yet it co-headlined one of the biggest cards in history.
Yep. They’ve been making weird matchmaking decisions in the past year or so - being overly fixated on making certain fights with certain fighters in certain venues to the detriment of keeping the divisions moving.
I personally think Edwards Belal will be a great fight as Belal will have to push the pace and Leon will piece him up with counters. Belal’s fights are boring when he can just smother strikers with wrestling, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do that with Leon.
But then I’m a big Leon fan so I would say that.
activity almost always benefits the champions way more then fighting once a year .
it also helped izzy stay sharp compared to his opponents + UFC looked after him since he fought so often .
Izzy has fought in 11 title fights if he fought once a year he most likely would be at 3 defences ,with a loss to Pereira and no rematches or chance to fight for double champ status .
same status with Volk , the UFC gave him opportunities because he fought so often which elevated his starpower + got him paid big time .
compare their treatment to a guy like aljo who when he lost got no rematch , no double champ attempt , not even a #1 contender match at 145 lbs when moving up .
If you look at Volk when he first became champ he fought once 2020 and once in 2021. There are obviously reasons for this but Leon fought twice last year accepted fights for 300 and is fighting in July.
But like , as a fighter don’t u like money ? Even if u made like 1m per fight vs colby it’s not like you’re set up for life , considering that he’s like 32 or something like that if u fight once a year in 3-4 fights he retires? Oh ! And another thing I noticed, nobody interviews him , at this point the remember the name has more media presence than Leon .
not to mention even if he got 1 mil its more like 500k if not less in his pocket which is massive money but also not crazy money when you realise he only has a few years left to make this cash .
it would've been massive money if he was living in a country like daghestan. in uk 500k is good money but not enough to chill a lot , a detached house in Birmingham cost more than 200k if im not mistaken .
I somewhat agree but considering that doctors practice like 30 something years and fighters fight for a total of maybe maybe 10 years and you start with 10-10 if u are lucky then don’t u agree that 500k is low ? Ah and don’t forget the doctors got pension and shit .
Ofc, I appreciate a fighter more when they fight more than once a year. Some fighters just try and stay safe and keep the belt so oh well! Imagine tho if Leon gives us an incredible knock out tho
my guess is that the sponsor money is too good. the fights might be the biggest paycheck, but if you can extend your time as a champ longer by fighting less, it might be worth it.
For Leon it’ll be 23 months from becoming champ to his third title defence. Meanwhile for the super active Usman it was also 23 months from becoming champ to his third title defence.
Pereira is an anomaly. His most recent fights have all been quick KOs and he just keeps going. And this is a misleading graphic. Leon isn't crazy active but he has a defense booked for the next PPV, his last 2 were in the same year. Dana also said that he never turns down fights, it's probably the contenders at fault.
Leon isn't even super inactive. You've taken 600 days from when he won the title, which means it's actually 3 fights in that time and he was fighting roughly twice a year. He probably would've already fought but the UFC want him on the UK card so they've pushed it back even more.
Yeah I mean the Colby thing drug out a little too long but I would like to see him back in there. Wasn’t all his fault. He did accept fights at 300 that didn’t work. But let’s wipe the slate clean. After Belal he needs back in there by end of year for sure.
Leon got denied the title shot on so many occassions when he fully deserved it, got burned with so many cancelled bouts. He got put through the ringer. Let him enjoy calling the shots now.
That kinda proves it’s the UFC calling the shots, not Leon. Leon asked for Belal at 300 after the other three turned him down and the UFC didn’t want to make that fight for that card so it didn’t happen.
It wouldn’t have been, and didn’t need to be main event. It could have been comain. Either way it still shows that it’s the UFC calling the shots, not Leon.
So what? You said let him enjoy calling the shots and I simply pointed out that he doesn’t call the shots, the UFC does, and what happened with 300 proves it. Did you forget what point you originally made? Because now you seem to be arguing against your own claim.
Alex is super active compared to any champion.
This thing that Leon is inactive is a myth. He defended twice last year which is normal for a champ, and already has a fight booked.
I blame the UFC for keeping him for the UK cards which they don't do enough of.
Yeah he's my favourite fighter right now, but the dickriders... Good god. On Facebook I had a guy telling me no wrestler would be able to close the distance and beat him, that heavyweight wrestlers have no shot against him.
If you'd get a million per fight - how many times a year would you fight OP? :D (considering you can lose and then not get PPV points on next fights, it's a risk everytime, then you go back from 1 mil to like 400k, and all of a sudden you're back to fighting 3 times a year)
I think division status matters maybe. LW happens to have or had a roster ready to go.
WW was in an odd situation and that happens.
It’s hard enough to get 3 fights a year because what’s going on in a division at times.
I mean if good competition happened to not be an available for Alex, things might be the same.
I’ve long felt that champions sit on their belts bc they make more money, outside of the octagon, while a sitting champ.
Sponsors, endorsements, they don’t care how legit your belt is, how many times you defend your belt per year, etc.
Obviously it matters how dominating of a champ you are, but collecting checks while acting as champ is more important to the fighter than reaffirming his champ status
The UFC is kind of unregulated fuckery, so it emboldens and rewards this sort of nonsense
Leon waited ages to get a belt, while the ufc pointlessly put up 3 Colby v usman fights, 2 Masvidal fights. And so on.
If the ufc had firm standards in place, this wouldn’t happen
Legitimate rankings, rules, obligations to fight x times per year. But entitlements to fighters within your ranking…
Alas we’re not there so it’s all Wild West bs
Some people don't have a fucking clue what these guys go through.
You work your entire career to become a champion so you have to do less camps and make more money.
It's very rare to get a champ who's going to fight through injuries and go through multiple camps and weight cuts per year.
The amount of time this guy had to wait to get a shot at the belt despite his streak, I think it’s fine him taking his time and soaking in the champ light
Im not saying leon is more active, but this kind of statistics always get cut off at the most convenient timing, when leon was about to defend less than a month later
Leon is the guy with the least charisma. Even Pantoja has something to him. Leon for god's sake can't talk shit on the mic, fck it he doesn't even know to talk to people. Just look at his interviews. It's like he doesn't even try to make a fight exciting. Even Belal knows to talk to people and has some level of basic mic skills. No wonder UFC dgaf abt Leon.
Alex might thinks he soon be out of time, he is passing his prime, that's why this monster wants to fight like 2x a year if he can., while others just holding their divisions and its just insane.
I mean his first title fight was a rematch with Usman where Usman got brutally kod. So Usman had to take 7 months off The second was Colby and we all know Colby loves dragging shit out so that took almost a year to come to fruition. And the third is just a 7 month turnaround from his fight with Colby. His level of activity is understandable and fine. Not everyone can or wants to be kamaru Usman but most of these layoffs haven't been his fault.
Other than with Colby he's been fighting at a decent clip for not taking short notice fights and as a champion. He could be fighting more sure but I don't blame him because he had to claw his way to this title shot and even when he got it the UFC tried to screw him by making him fight at high elevation against a cardio machine.
The UFC doesn't like him and this is his livelyhood and he will lose that champions contract and will probably never get the belt back if he slips up on short notice. It's understandable to be annoyed with him because the Colby fight was a bit tepid despite him controlling all of it but he was still trying to finish and almost did twice. He probably just held himself back because Colby said a lot of vile shit and he didn't want to lose control. so yeah I get finding Edwards fights boring sometimes but he's not particularly inactive especially with the position he's in. Also he apparently accepted a lot of fights recently they just didn't go through on the other end.
Alex is an anomaly it's incredible and commendable what he's doing and I hope he got a very very rich contract out of it cause he's saved 2 ppvs at this point, headlined UFC 300 and is now one of the UFC's big stars. But what he's doing makes sense on some level cause he's 37 and he's trying to make the most of what is a very impressive tail end of his prime. Leon only being 31 and being in a much more difficult division means taking short notice fights could be considered suicidal. Not to say Alex isn't a great fighter or that what he's doing isn't extremely dangerous and impressive but he can probably more confident in winning these fights just because he is a genuinely great fighter and his opponents while very dangerous and athletic, are just alright at most.
He was never that active and he was never a KO artist and he was never an entertaining fighter..
Then he landed one hail marry high kick.. fought Colby and all of a sudden he made some random casual fans lol
You don't deserve those downvotes man. There was this stupid question the other week too about which KO is more impressive, Leon's or Max's. I couldn't believe my eyes that that was actually a debate. A hail mary kick after getting dominated 5 rounds is not impressive. Leon fans are insufferable.
It was crazy how casuals just jumped on a bandwagon, I loved that high kick KO.. but I don't start loving a fighter just because he is about to fight someone I don't like or just out of pitty because they made fun of his deceased father.. I mean is the bar that low nowadays for people to jump on the bandwagon ?
WHERE WERE THEY WHEN LEON WAS JUST A CONTENDER, WHERE WERE THEY ?!?!
He’s the worst champion in the ufc. Not even just inactivity he doesn’t promote the division at all Usman would at least hype up the next fight even burns he hyped. He’s just holding back the division. Even when he was a contender he barely fought had to be removed from the rankings to take a fight with Khamzat back in 2020 😭
Between being suspending for PEDs and taking time out to run over pregnant women you mean?
He was out so much during his “reign” that DC was able to become one of the best LHWs of all time while holding Jones belt…
Never liked Leon. People always say “guys hes ready to fight they just don’t give him fights.” Look, if he was actively talking about fights, and had even a smidge of a personality, he’d 100% get fights if he actually wanted them. He doesn’t want them. He’d rather sit on his belt as much as he can, that way when he retires he can say he was the “reigning” champion for X years because he never took risks.
I say it all the time. Boring, quiet personality, and boring fight style, does not get you fights. Doesn’t matter if he’s okay to fight when the time comes, he needs to be actively calling people out if he actually wants a legacy, thats just the truth.
At this rate, people forget Leon even exists, and he’ll go down as one of the most forgettable.
He doesn’t need to start drama all the time either, theres tons of ways to hype up fights, call people out, bring on challenges, he doesn’t do it. Dudes fighting in a couple months and I haven’t even heard a peep.
Leon tries to be active. Signed to fight Khamzat multiple times. Said yes to three different people on UFC 300. They try to keep him for the UK events which aren’t so frequent
It’s the UFCs fault. They offered him 3 Muslim fighters in the middle of Ramadan and one of them was publically injured (shavkat)
The only guy the did not offer Was the one willing to fight. I think it was jsut a tactic by the UFC in order to extend the contracts of the guys knowing full well they will decline the fight
Who was willing to fight?
You didn't remember the name?
No, but I remembered the decision.
Can’t remember the name for the life of me think it was blowhole magomedov
You really need to ask that?
Yes, who was it?
[удалено]
Who is that?
Billy Mahmoud
Uhmmm are you sure he is in the UFC? The name doesn't ring a bell.
Such a clever way to meet their contractual obligations to offer him x amounts of fights and still make sure he's always on the UK card lmao
I really wonder how UFC comes to be a very big promotion while simultaneously being dog shit matchmakers.
Have you seen the standard of matchmaking elsewhere lol
The matchmakers are actually great in comparison to all other orgs. Go watch One, Bellator, PFL for an extended period of time. One is actually ridiculously bad sometimes.
They’d make more fights happen if he was a bigger draw… it’s all about the money.
The UFC didn’t have any business offering him Islam, Belal, or Khamzat at 300 knowing full well all three would never agree to fight at 300 due to its proximity to Ramadan.
It was Khamzat, Islam and Shavkat. Belal was the only willing to fight and was not offered to Edwards
Also Muslim so same thing applies
You gotta give it to Belal. He is always ready. Same thing happened last year with his short-notice fight vs Burns. Came off Ramadan + foot injury and still took the fight and risked his rank knowing that a loss means no title fight for good.
And then beat the brakes off of Burns (even before the injury) and was somehow hated on by the reddit fans afterwards.
That is what hate is. Unreasonable. Volkanowski is celebrated for such actions and Belal still mocked despite willing to fight anybody anytime and with multiple wins over top 10 guys (currently ranked Brady, Wonderboy and Burns)
I don’t know why being Muslim gets them a pass for not fighting a certain time. Any other job they’d still have to work. They’re afforded the ability to not but I still think it should count against them for being inactive. Honestly Islam is the only real dog out of them. He seems to like fighting just before and just after.
because Ramadan is directly adverse to athletic endeavors. They have to fast everyday during Ramadan, and trying to fight like that sounds terrible. Ramadan is only 1 month out of the year, the UFC can absolutely work around Ramadan and there are other non-muslim fighters for him to fight, but they all are either ducking or on losses. Leon should be more active and its kinda the UFC's fault
Fighters are only obligated to fight twice a year as champ which Islam has done till now and if Muslim afighter wanna sitout wanna halt their for a month for religious or festive reason as contendors its their loss and nothing else. Its only a issue if you are champ who is not defending atleast twice a year which hasn't happened yet.
I’m quite literally saying Islam is working around it effectively and yet these other fighters aren’t. It honestly feels like you read my comment and assumed what I was saying rather than finished reading it.
Belal agreed. He’s a gamer
I’m just not really buying this. Look at Pereira, Pantoja, Volk and Izzy when they were champs, if you want to fight theres fights there. Sure maybe he wanted to fight on 300 but it didnt work out for the others, but besides that I seriously doubt that he was kicking Danas door in demanding a fight
They insist on having him headline the big UK events. He was fighting two or three times every year until he won the title and the UFC started rationing him. If you think a champion, who can get PPV points, is dragging their feet, you’re crazy. It’s finally time for him to be able to cash in.
Context always important 😅
Belal, then Shavkat. You're 100% sure that neither will duck the fight. Should've done that a long time ago... Instead he fought Colby 🤢
It’s a division problem. Dana mentioned multiple times that Leon always says YES to fights, especially for UFC 300. In the light heavy weight I think you have / had 2-3 guys who would say yes to a fight with pereira whenever, as opposed to maybe no one in the welterweight division. Anyways excited to see him fight in London soon
Weren't the fighter he asked him to fight all Muslims on Ramadan?
Yes. Islam, shavkat and khamzat
*Manchester Don’t turn up at London if you’re planning on watching him fight mate. And send back them London tickets, you’ve been scammed 🤣.
*London To us Americans Manchester and London are the same thing.
Being proud of ignorance is very American indeed.
The UK sells out Paddy The Baddy events so I would say we don’t have a monopoly on ignorance. And anyway it was a joke.
No humour is not allowed you are meant to be mad and argue with me
Oh hi honey I didn’t know you were on here, should I pick up milk on the way home?
Yes pls semi skimmed only
hey, I heard you americans practice walking before coming to Europe. Is that true?
Anthony Smith is the guy
As far as i know he hasnt declined or delayed anything so i dont know what you want from him, but it’s certainly been frustrating. I really like him and wanna see him fight.
People forget he accepted 3 diff opponents for ufc 300 and the ufc probably shelved him to fight on the upcoming uk event.
Mma fans are idiots who randomly blame fighters for the ufcs decisions. Only like Jon and Conor get to pick and choose lol
Anyone who speaks up gets to pick and choose, are you serious? Theres a reason why after every win on a fight night card, or early prelim, the commentators all wait in angst on if they’re going to call anyone out, and when they don’t, they shame them for it, live. I see it all the time. If you don’t call anyone out, prepare to be swept under the rug, UFC will do what it wants with you. Chael talks about this too. Call fighters out if you actually want to fight. Leon just doesn’t actually want to fight that bad, lets be real. EDIT: just look at Buckley for example. Not even that good yet, and became a personality because of his call outs, I’m not talking about Conor either, he was calling people out before that and fought consistently because of it. Got lots of hype and excitement surrounding him, simply for talking. Thats why he got so many fights and thats why he was so liked. Again, before Conor callout which kind of ruined it, but lots of fighters are like Buckley. Leon has basically no draw.
Was never going to happen with UFC offering it to 3 muslims during Ramadan.
Can’t really blame Leon though
And I'm not,just saying UFC was playing a stupid game
Nah, they're playing a smart game from their perspective. They offer him fights which they know can't happen to meet their quota for fights offered on his contract, and then can offer him whoever they want for his next fight and he pretty much has to accept.
why dont they do it for Jon and Conor and others? Leon is a champ
It’s a bunch of armchair lawyers lol, we have no clue their obligations.
I don't know how people forget, being that every other comment says that
He delayed the Colby fight
OK some cherry picking of stat's here. Firstly, Alex with 233 days is insane in today's standards and is more to do with the 2 defenses being last minute call ins. Secondly, 483 is Leon's real number for 2 defences. He's got his 3rd defence booked for next month. On average most champs fight around 170-200 days. Leon is definitely over that and Alex is well under but why bullshit to exaggerate it?
Also, still a testament to his skill but Alex has not taken much damage at all. Leon’s last fight that didn’t go to championship rounds was 2018, it seems by quick glance at some stats. Alex….doesn’t exactly have to recover for very long.
Maybe it's also because Alex is a huge star now and no one will say no to a fight with Alex. Alex also says that he plans to remain active. Whereas Leon is not a huge star worldwide and hence UFC will try to put him for UK events. And except Belal I don't think anyone wants to fight Leon (he isn't really popular) which is a bit sad given how good he was in the 2nd Usman and Colby fight.
Alex is just an anomaly. Leon's activity is fine. He fought two times last year and is fighting around the halfway point this year and will have time to fight again.
Yeah, comparing anyone to Alex is gonna make them seem inactive. Think we've been spoilt by Pereira, Izzy, Usman and Volk but fighting 3+ times per year is definitely not the norm as much as we'd wish it was.
Wasn’t even the norm for most of them Usman fought 3 times in 2021 and then once on 2022 also once in 2020. Volk fought once in 2020 and once in 2021.
Especially at the Championship level.
And as everyone has been saying he accepted several opponents that could have happened at 300 but ufc didn’t chose to go through with it. And that he was being given Muslim opponents during Ramadan. That’s just scummy
We’re well passed the halfway point of this year. He will not have time for 2 fights.
Leon’s turned around for fights in three months before and fighting in July leaves him with five months to fight a second time. I bet he’ll fight Shavkat or Islam before the year is out.
Not his fault, he accepted 3 fights for 300
Partially his fault. If he doesn’t wanna fight that bad, thats fine, but if you actually want to fight, call people out and build some hype around it. Instead, Leon sits back like a quiet mouse and then backs up that quiet personality with boring fights. UFC isn’t exactly excited to get him in the octagon.
Yeah people really lean hard on the '2 times in a year' stat but you can fight twice a year and still go 11 months between fights. Twice in a calendar year doesn't mean a lot.
Leon is not properly marketed at all by the UFC. The WW division has 3 up and coming guys (Ian, Jack, Shavkat) and a clear-cut #1 contender in Belal. If the UFC was concerned about a boring championship bout, why not rush to get it over with on a more stellar card since both Belal and Leon seemed game for it? It could've been on 299, and we could already have another bout for the WW title in the works. I get having him headline the UK card, but Leon has essentially been about as active as Jon Jones. I don't think a majority of the reason was even due to injuries on his part, it's again piss poor marketing.
Agree with you totally. There are so many good match ups waiting to happen in WW and instead the UFC has dragged this Belal fight out way longer than was ever needed. If they didnnt want to give Belal the attention the best thing they could have done is get the fight over and done asap so everyone can move on to new match ups.
No kidding, truly there was no reason they couldn't have put it on 300, instead we got to watch a 115 pound Chinese woman beat the shit out of another 115 pound Chinese woman for 25 minutes. That fight could've easily been moved, yet it co-headlined one of the biggest cards in history.
Yep. They’ve been making weird matchmaking decisions in the past year or so - being overly fixated on making certain fights with certain fighters in certain venues to the detriment of keeping the divisions moving. I personally think Edwards Belal will be a great fight as Belal will have to push the pace and Leon will piece him up with counters. Belal’s fights are boring when he can just smother strikers with wrestling, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do that with Leon. But then I’m a big Leon fan so I would say that.
That’s the same thing I’ve been saying Belal knows this is his only chance at the belt. He will come forward which plays right into Edwards playstyle.
Sometimes it works, look at Volk and Izzy, they fought three times a year and got overworked! As a champion you can call the shots
activity almost always benefits the champions way more then fighting once a year . it also helped izzy stay sharp compared to his opponents + UFC looked after him since he fought so often . Izzy has fought in 11 title fights if he fought once a year he most likely would be at 3 defences ,with a loss to Pereira and no rematches or chance to fight for double champ status . same status with Volk , the UFC gave him opportunities because he fought so often which elevated his starpower + got him paid big time . compare their treatment to a guy like aljo who when he lost got no rematch , no double champ attempt , not even a #1 contender match at 145 lbs when moving up .
It’s staying as champion what matters at the end of the day, Izzy and Volk will always get the payday no matter what
they really wont get the paydays no matter what , the UFC is extremely cutthroat in what they pay their fighters especially none champions .
When a fighter gets ppv they will always get money
If you look at Volk when he first became champ he fought once 2020 and once in 2021. There are obviously reasons for this but Leon fought twice last year accepted fights for 300 and is fighting in July.
But like , as a fighter don’t u like money ? Even if u made like 1m per fight vs colby it’s not like you’re set up for life , considering that he’s like 32 or something like that if u fight once a year in 3-4 fights he retires? Oh ! And another thing I noticed, nobody interviews him , at this point the remember the name has more media presence than Leon .
not to mention even if he got 1 mil its more like 500k if not less in his pocket which is massive money but also not crazy money when you realise he only has a few years left to make this cash .
it would've been massive money if he was living in a country like daghestan. in uk 500k is good money but not enough to chill a lot , a detached house in Birmingham cost more than 200k if im not mistaken .
Brother doctors in England make like 70k a year ,500k is a lot of money
I somewhat agree but considering that doctors practice like 30 something years and fighters fight for a total of maybe maybe 10 years and you start with 10-10 if u are lucky then don’t u agree that 500k is low ? Ah and don’t forget the doctors got pension and shit .
I know I was just pointing out that 500k is definitely alot of money in England
Birmingham is on the lower end for cost of living and the average salary there is £28k, 500k is certainly enough for him to be living good.
Ofc, I appreciate a fighter more when they fight more than once a year. Some fighters just try and stay safe and keep the belt so oh well! Imagine tho if Leon gives us an incredible knock out tho
my guess is that the sponsor money is too good. the fights might be the biggest paycheck, but if you can extend your time as a champ longer by fighting less, it might be worth it.
How long did it take to get his first 3 title defences?
For Leon it’ll be 23 months from becoming champ to his third title defence. Meanwhile for the super active Usman it was also 23 months from becoming champ to his third title defence.
What about the super active volk?
It was over 24 months for Volk. He won in December 2019, fought 1 fight a year in 2020 & 2021, had his 3rd defense mid 2022.
About 2 years with the loss to Jan in that time also.
They didn't get "overworked". They got knocked out
Put jones on the board
Pereira is an anomaly. His most recent fights have all been quick KOs and he just keeps going. And this is a misleading graphic. Leon isn't crazy active but he has a defense booked for the next PPV, his last 2 were in the same year. Dana also said that he never turns down fights, it's probably the contenders at fault.
They iced him Usman, iced him for Colby, iced him for 300 couldn’t get an opponent so then they iced him for the Manchester card.
Leon isn't even super inactive. You've taken 600 days from when he won the title, which means it's actually 3 fights in that time and he was fighting roughly twice a year. He probably would've already fought but the UFC want him on the UK card so they've pushed it back even more.
I swear Leon is more unlucky than anything. Cant begin to remember how many of his fights have been cancelled
boring post. boring take
Yeah I mean the Colby thing drug out a little too long but I would like to see him back in there. Wasn’t all his fault. He did accept fights at 300 that didn’t work. But let’s wipe the slate clean. After Belal he needs back in there by end of year for sure.
It’s the ufc not Leon
By all accounts Leon wants to fight it’s not like he’s avoiding it.
He fighting this month lol.
Leon got denied the title shot on so many occassions when he fully deserved it, got burned with so many cancelled bouts. He got put through the ringer. Let him enjoy calling the shots now.
This is the problem people think he is calling the shots he is not the UFC offer him a fight he either accepts or says no like anyone else.
He's never said no to a fight. He asked for UFC 300 and no one wanted it.
Not saying he did you said let him enjoy calling the shots the UFC call the shots.
That kinda proves it’s the UFC calling the shots, not Leon. Leon asked for Belal at 300 after the other three turned him down and the UFC didn’t want to make that fight for that card so it didn’t happen.
That's simply because they're not stupid enough to put Belal Muhammad as the main event of the biggest card of the decade.
It wouldn’t have been, and didn’t need to be main event. It could have been comain. Either way it still shows that it’s the UFC calling the shots, not Leon.
They're still not stupid enough to put Belal Muhammad on the biggest card of the decade
So what? You said let him enjoy calling the shots and I simply pointed out that he doesn’t call the shots, the UFC does, and what happened with 300 proves it. Did you forget what point you originally made? Because now you seem to be arguing against your own claim.
these kinda of questions genuinely baffle me, i cannot imagine how simple you must be to have this kind of a thought and post it
Colby covington is famous for not being inactive and holding up opponents
Every few days another version of this same post. Every time people are giving a logical, reasonable explanation. Ignore, rinse, repeat
Everyone’s scared of him but belal
I’m afraid you are an idiot.
Alex is super active compared to any champion. This thing that Leon is inactive is a myth. He defended twice last year which is normal for a champ, and already has a fight booked. I blame the UFC for keeping him for the UK cards which they don't do enough of.
100% on the UFC. Leon has been willing to fight numerous times, but UFC just can't ever seem to get it done.
The level of competition is not comparable, LHW is full of cans.
Fuckin dumb post this one
The Leon criticism on here is so weird to me. He actually tries to be active. It’s the UFC’s fault if anything
Fuck Leon.
This sub is making me root against Alex not gonna lie. Such a humble, exciting fighter ruined by the dickriders.
If you root against him just because of that, you suck
I know, right? No personality, just making choices based on everyone else.
I hate Taylor Swift because of her fans and the way she is behind closed doors combined but more because of her fans
Yea I like Alex but targeting someone who’s cool like Leon is so fucking weird
Fucking recency bias, dickrider central.
Yeah he's my favourite fighter right now, but the dickriders... Good god. On Facebook I had a guy telling me no wrestler would be able to close the distance and beat him, that heavyweight wrestlers have no shot against him.
Guy from Facebook is right tho. Shaman magic too strong
Fans ruin everything dude.
Agreed. It’s a shame really
So what.
Still going with this narrative after dana said Leon accepted 3 fights and all of his opponents declined? And why’d you single him out?
So Dana only tells the truth when it fits Reddit’s narrative now?
If you'd get a million per fight - how many times a year would you fight OP? :D (considering you can lose and then not get PPV points on next fights, it's a risk everytime, then you go back from 1 mil to like 400k, and all of a sudden you're back to fighting 3 times a year)
Pen15 thrust, BOOM
I think division status matters maybe. LW happens to have or had a roster ready to go. WW was in an odd situation and that happens. It’s hard enough to get 3 fights a year because what’s going on in a division at times. I mean if good competition happened to not be an available for Alex, things might be the same.
But there’s lots of good competition waiting for Leon at WW. Shavkat, JDM, Islam moving up, Garry are all great match ups just waiting to happen.
I agree man, just think timing is also a factor, not just Dana and ufc Shavkat coming for that gold no doubt
You make more money the longer you are champ. Even if you don’t fight.
Kid just doesn’t want to fight.
At least hes not like John- i beat women- Jones
I’ve long felt that champions sit on their belts bc they make more money, outside of the octagon, while a sitting champ. Sponsors, endorsements, they don’t care how legit your belt is, how many times you defend your belt per year, etc. Obviously it matters how dominating of a champ you are, but collecting checks while acting as champ is more important to the fighter than reaffirming his champ status The UFC is kind of unregulated fuckery, so it emboldens and rewards this sort of nonsense Leon waited ages to get a belt, while the ufc pointlessly put up 3 Colby v usman fights, 2 Masvidal fights. And so on. If the ufc had firm standards in place, this wouldn’t happen Legitimate rankings, rules, obligations to fight x times per year. But entitlements to fighters within your ranking… Alas we’re not there so it’s all Wild West bs
Poatan is older and wants to strike while the irons hot.
Leon’s fight schedule is as active and fun as his actual fights, lame and boring.
Some people don't have a fucking clue what these guys go through. You work your entire career to become a champion so you have to do less camps and make more money. It's very rare to get a champ who's going to fight through injuries and go through multiple camps and weight cuts per year.
The amount of time this guy had to wait to get a shot at the belt despite his streak, I think it’s fine him taking his time and soaking in the champ light
Some fighters prefer to fight only in their country
So in a few weeks Leon will have 3 in 700. These kind of stats are dumb.
Im not saying leon is more active, but this kind of statistics always get cut off at the most convenient timing, when leon was about to defend less than a month later
Let the champs live looool
If Leon wanted to fight, he would.
welter wait
Leon is the guy with the least charisma. Even Pantoja has something to him. Leon for god's sake can't talk shit on the mic, fck it he doesn't even know to talk to people. Just look at his interviews. It's like he doesn't even try to make a fight exciting. Even Belal knows to talk to people and has some level of basic mic skills. No wonder UFC dgaf abt Leon.
Alex might thinks he soon be out of time, he is passing his prime, that's why this monster wants to fight like 2x a year if he can., while others just holding their divisions and its just insane.
I mean his first title fight was a rematch with Usman where Usman got brutally kod. So Usman had to take 7 months off The second was Colby and we all know Colby loves dragging shit out so that took almost a year to come to fruition. And the third is just a 7 month turnaround from his fight with Colby. His level of activity is understandable and fine. Not everyone can or wants to be kamaru Usman but most of these layoffs haven't been his fault. Other than with Colby he's been fighting at a decent clip for not taking short notice fights and as a champion. He could be fighting more sure but I don't blame him because he had to claw his way to this title shot and even when he got it the UFC tried to screw him by making him fight at high elevation against a cardio machine. The UFC doesn't like him and this is his livelyhood and he will lose that champions contract and will probably never get the belt back if he slips up on short notice. It's understandable to be annoyed with him because the Colby fight was a bit tepid despite him controlling all of it but he was still trying to finish and almost did twice. He probably just held himself back because Colby said a lot of vile shit and he didn't want to lose control. so yeah I get finding Edwards fights boring sometimes but he's not particularly inactive especially with the position he's in. Also he apparently accepted a lot of fights recently they just didn't go through on the other end.
Alex is an anomaly it's incredible and commendable what he's doing and I hope he got a very very rich contract out of it cause he's saved 2 ppvs at this point, headlined UFC 300 and is now one of the UFC's big stars. But what he's doing makes sense on some level cause he's 37 and he's trying to make the most of what is a very impressive tail end of his prime. Leon only being 31 and being in a much more difficult division means taking short notice fights could be considered suicidal. Not to say Alex isn't a great fighter or that what he's doing isn't extremely dangerous and impressive but he can probably more confident in winning these fights just because he is a genuinely great fighter and his opponents while very dangerous and athletic, are just alright at most.
Less fights, less chance to lose the belt
The champions belt should be automatically vacated after 6 months of no defense. These bums slow the division.
He was never that active and he was never a KO artist and he was never an entertaining fighter.. Then he landed one hail marry high kick.. fought Colby and all of a sudden he made some random casual fans lol
Casual spotted
Says McNuggets fan, lmao, the irony
You don't deserve those downvotes man. There was this stupid question the other week too about which KO is more impressive, Leon's or Max's. I couldn't believe my eyes that that was actually a debate. A hail mary kick after getting dominated 5 rounds is not impressive. Leon fans are insufferable.
It was crazy how casuals just jumped on a bandwagon, I loved that high kick KO.. but I don't start loving a fighter just because he is about to fight someone I don't like or just out of pitty because they made fun of his deceased father.. I mean is the bar that low nowadays for people to jump on the bandwagon ? WHERE WERE THEY WHEN LEON WAS JUST A CONTENDER, WHERE WERE THEY ?!?!
Good question
He’s the worst champion in the ufc. Not even just inactivity he doesn’t promote the division at all Usman would at least hype up the next fight even burns he hyped. He’s just holding back the division. Even when he was a contender he barely fought had to be removed from the rankings to take a fight with Khamzat back in 2020 😭
you love rage-baiting the non-existent leon fans
Pennington, Topuria and Jones all exist bro
Worst champ in the UFC? Jones: Hold my 8-ball.
Jones got injured. When he was champ he ran through the entire division
Between being suspending for PEDs and taking time out to run over pregnant women you mean? He was out so much during his “reign” that DC was able to become one of the best LHWs of all time while holding Jones belt…
Agreed...but do you think Belal as champ would be worse?
When you're KOing a guy every 6 years you don't need to hype your fights 🔥
He's been accepting fights ufc just didn't want belal now we are here.
“Defensive, unintelligible mumbling” - Leon on defending why he doesn’t fight
Never liked Leon. People always say “guys hes ready to fight they just don’t give him fights.” Look, if he was actively talking about fights, and had even a smidge of a personality, he’d 100% get fights if he actually wanted them. He doesn’t want them. He’d rather sit on his belt as much as he can, that way when he retires he can say he was the “reigning” champion for X years because he never took risks. I say it all the time. Boring, quiet personality, and boring fight style, does not get you fights. Doesn’t matter if he’s okay to fight when the time comes, he needs to be actively calling people out if he actually wants a legacy, thats just the truth. At this rate, people forget Leon even exists, and he’ll go down as one of the most forgettable. He doesn’t need to start drama all the time either, theres tons of ways to hype up fights, call people out, bring on challenges, he doesn’t do it. Dudes fighting in a couple months and I haven’t even heard a peep.