Leon Edwards: MMA saved me from being ‘lifeless, in jail or lifeless broke’

Why? What if? These are the questions I ask myself on daily basis.

What if my dad did not deliver me to the UK? What if my gymnasium by no means opened within the Erdington neighborhood of Birmingham, England? It is simply mad — it is a loopy factor.

Why was I the one who made it off the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, who escaped the killing, the medication and the poverty when so many others did not?

I haven’t got the reply, actually. However I do know I’ve a objective. It is not simply to be a UFC fighter or the longer term welterweight champion of the world. It is greater than that.

I used to be born in Kingston. I lived with my father, my mom and my brother, Fabian, in a wood shack with a zinc roof. It wasn’t a one-bedroom; it was one room, interval. In that room was the kitchen, the lounge and the bed room. We had one mattress that all of us slept in. That was most individuals’s upbringing the place I am from.

It was robust, however as a child, it simply appeared regular as a result of everybody round you was residing the identical method. I used to be nonetheless joyful as a child. My mother and my dad offered me with most issues I wished in life. It was by no means a tragic story.

Saturday’s UFC Combat Night time card in San Antonio will characteristic two welterweights aiming to get into the title image and the subsequent take a look at for ex-NFL star Greg Hardy. Rafael Dos Anjos, who snapped a two-fight skid in Could, and Leon Edwards, a winner of seven straight bouts, will meet in the primary occasion. Hardy additionally will likely be on the primary card as he takes on Juan Adams.

UFC Combat Night time: Dos Anjos vs. Edwards
• Saturday, San Antonio
• Prelims: ESPN, 6 p.m. ET
• Essential card: ESPN, 9 p.m. ET

Subscribe to ESPN+ to get unique dwell UFC occasions, weigh-ins and extra; Ariel and the Unhealthy Man; Dana White’s Contender Sequence; and extra unique MMA content material.

I noticed as I acquired a bit older why I used to be the primary child in my neighborhood to have a remote-control automobile and a motorcycle. My father was concerned in, let’s simply say, questionable actions. Everybody would present him respect. I knew he was essential in the neighborhood. I knew what he did — everybody knew what he did.

Due to my father, I used to be considerably protected. However Kingston was loopy. It was stuffed with crime and gangs. The highway you lived on was your “lane.” That is your space and you’ll’t go anyplace else. You are consistently beefing with folks down the highway from you. At evening, you could not go down these different roads. Everyone seems to be broke, however they’re nonetheless warring over territory. It is most likely the poverty and starvation that does it to males. It is mad.

As a child rising up in Jamaica, all you see is crime, medication, killing, taking pictures, poverty. Day in and day trip. I’ve by no means seen somebody get shot in entrance of my face, however I’ve seen individuals who have been hit with bullets working to get away.

Killing grew to become regular to me as a child. Listening to gunshots was regular; it didn’t faze me. While you’re taking part in outdoors in Jamaica and also you hear gunshots, you do not run and conceal. You simply look, and if it is nowhere close to you, you stick with it together with your day. That was it. It is part of life. We did not know any higher.

Once I was about 5 or 6 years outdated, my father moved to London, the place his mom was residing. My dad despatched for us — my mother, Fabian and me — after I was about 9 years outdated. We moved to Aston, a crime-ridden neighborhood in Birmingham. My dad stayed in London and we noticed him on some weekends. He purchased us a home, and my mother labored cleansing jobs to assist us.

Aston was in a relentless gang struggle. There was the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys. They have been rivals, and violence consistently broke out between each side. I fell in with the youthful youngsters.

Edwards misplaced his UFC debut combat with Claudio Silva by break up choice however has gained 9 of his subsequent 10 matchups. Buda Mendes/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC through Getty Photos

I did not plan to get right into a gang. It is simply what you probably did. It was a method of survival. Folks do not perceive that your choices are restricted when you do not know any higher.

Once I was 14, my father was murdered. He was shot and killed at a nightclub in London. It was one thing to do with cash. I do not know what precisely. It was some mad s—, however I knew that it might occur.

However that did not make it any simpler. It f—ed me up. It pushed me extra into gang life and crime, towards the detrimental. My mid-teens have been my darkest years.

My crew was concerned with fights, robberies and stabbings. We offered some medication. We smoked weed and drank, a bit. I used to be arrested a number of instances, for fights and having a knife.

It was largely combating. I fought to defend mates, I fought to intimidate and I fought due to beefs. I fought on a regular basis. That is why my nickname is “Rocky.” I acquired that from faculty. That is earlier than I acquired into MMA. I acquired it simply from scrapping within the streets.

There have been a number of issues I did throughout this time that I actually remorse. It is exhausting to consider it was me who did it. It is like a distinct life. I do not like speaking about it. And I strive on daily basis to make up for them.

Edwards, proper, poses together with his brother, Fabian. Each at the moment are skilled combined martial artists. Courtesy of Leon Edwards

Once I was 17, my mom and I have been strolling in Erdington, the a part of Birmingham we moved to after Aston. There was a gymnasium being constructed there, Final Coaching Middle. They have been going to coach MMA fighters. My mother wished me to affix to get me off the streets. I did not actually know what MMA was. There wasn’t a lot of it within the UK on the time. My mother might barely afford to pay membership charges, however in some way she made it work.

I am really grateful for what she did for me. I did not see it after I was a child, however now I’ve acquired a little bit boy, as properly. Now I do know she did what she needed to do to outlive. I by no means went with out one thing.

I used to be coaching two to 3 instances per day, on daily basis. A number of months in, I requested the gymnasium supervisor if I might work there instructing youthful youngsters and never must pay dues. He agreed.

I had my first beginner combat eight months into coaching. Then I gained 4 fights in sooner or later, profitable a event on the gymnasium. From then on, I caught to MMA. I knew it was what I wished to do. I used to be a pure at it. I consider that is what God put me right here to do.

My mates began to coach in MMA too. I used to be within the gymnasium a lot, they adopted me there. A lot of the younger black youngsters within the neighborhood, they have been coming in too. They have been seeing my success and attempting to observe my path. I am very pleased with that. That is certainly one of my foremost issues: While you see somebody profitable who got here from the place you got here from and now he is doing good in one thing, you wish to observe it. I confirmed them a distinct method.

“There have been a number of issues I did throughout this time that I actually remorse. It is exhausting to consider it was me who did it. I do not like speaking about it.”

UFC welterweight Leon Edwards

In 2014, I gained the BAMMA welterweight title in London, and I signed with the UFC later that 12 months. When you see a distinct lifestyle, you get a distinct imaginative and prescient of life. For me, now, I journey quite a bit, and I see extra folks in several methods of life. You be taught from every of them. It opens your mind as much as a lot. Now I can move that right down to my household, to my son, to everybody round me.

My son, Jayon, is 6 years outdated. My foremost motivation is to depart one thing for my child that I by no means had. I do know what it feels prefer to be the place I used to be. That is why I push so exhausting day in and day trip — to present him and my entire household the very best life I can.

It is a tremendous factor to have achieved what I’ve achieved coming from the place I’ve come from. The folks I knew again then have taken a completely totally different path. Someway, I’ve made it to this place in my life, to have the ability to give again. Now my brother, Fabian, is doing the identical factor combating for Bellator. I am very pleased with him.

I do all the things I can for my household and others, as a result of I do know what might have been. There have been folks I knew who’re nonetheless caught in that scenario I used to be in, and so they’re both lifeless, in jail or lifeless broke. That might have occurred to me. That was the life. I would most likely be in the identical place they’re in if issues did not work out otherwise. I nonetheless do not know why it did.

Edwards is coming off a break up choice victory in opposition to Gunnar Nelson in March. Pat Scaasi/MI Information/NurPhoto through Getty Photos

That is why I’m going again to my outdated highschool, Aston Manor Academy, and speak to the children. I inform them the place I began and that the place you begin would not matter, it is the place you find yourself that issues. You may management your life. You do not have to be what anyone needs you to be. Management your life and you’ll be something in life.

I am within the course of of shopping for a house in Birmingham. And I am just like the financial institution for my household now. I attempt to give them all the things they want. My mom is attempting to open up a Jamaican restaurant. Two weeks in the past, I flew my grandmother — my mother’s mom — to Birmingham. She’s nearly 80 years outdated, and it was her first day out of Jamaica. Are you able to consider that? Once I get again from the combat, I stay up for spending extra time along with her. I wish to present her London and Buckingham Palace. All that vacationer stuff.

I by no means dreamed of being a top-10 fighter on the earth as a child. By no means. That wasn’t even a thought in my head. To return now to be the place I’m, it is f—ing mad. It is loopy.

I do know what my future holds. I actually consider I am made to be on this place, that is what I am right here for and that is what I am meant to be doing — combating Rafael dos Anjos at UFC San Antonio on Saturday evening. That is the way in which it is speculated to occur. I do know sooner or later I will be UFC champion. I am solely 27 years outdated.