JRE MMA Show #106 with Leon Edwards

Joe Rogan 0:02 (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

Narrator 0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan 0:06 Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Leon, what's up?

Leon Edwards 0:13 I'm good. How are you?

Joe Rogan 0:14 I'm... Dude, uh, first of all, fun hanging with you last night.

Leon Edwards 0:17 It was a good night.

Joe Rogan 0:18 It was good time.

Leon Edwards 0:19 Definitely the first time seeing you, um, live. I, I was saying to my, my man- manager, he's so eff- effortless. He's, like, talking, right, but it's still funny. It was like, if you can approach fighting like that, like make it eff- e- um, effortless, then that... You're doing a good job.

Joe Rogan 0:34 Well, I think some guys can at certain stages, right? Like, there's moments in fights where... Don't you feel like you're in a zone sometimes and it just... Everything's flowing?

Leon Edwards 0:43 Saturday night.

Joe Rogan 0:44 Saturday night, yeah.

Leon Edwards 0:45 Saturday night, I'm like, I felt good. All backstage 'cause, um, leading up to the fight everyone's like, "Ring rust, ring rust." So I was kinda waiting for some feeling to say, "Where's ring rust?" Right? But I felt great backstage and I preferred fighting with, with no crowd.

Joe Rogan 0:59 Did you really?

Leon Edwards 1:00 Yeah. I, I... 'Cause y- you get, you get to the, to the apex and it's like you get there, you wrap your hands, you warm up, you fight. There's no hanging around for five hours backstage and just... It's like a gym, right? You just... You get there, you warm, then you just go compete, so I, I preferred it for sure.

Joe Rogan 1:16 Did you prefer it because of the- there's no noise, no distractions, no nothing?

Leon Edwards 1:22 And you can hear your coaches clearly.

Joe Rogan 1:23 Oh, yeah.

Leon Edwards 1:23 Yeah?

Joe Rogan 1:24 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 1:24 Instructions clearly and-

Joe Rogan 1:25 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 1:25 I'm, I'm, I'm a very good listener to my coaches, so I wouldn't say I prefer it, but it was... I, it was good. I enjoyed it.

Joe Rogan 1:32 You have been in a very interesting position over the last few years where you are one of the top UFC welterler- uh, welterweights. But just be- be- because of bad fortune, just things just haven't totally lined up correctly.

Leon Edwards 1:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:48 Fights have fallen apart, injuries and sicknesses and a bunch of shit went down and you're... Until Saturday night you, you had been kind of ignored by a lot of fans.

Leon Edwards 2:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:00 Like, a lot of people don't understand what level you're at. They don't understand. I think they saw it for the brief moment-

Leon Edwards 2:06 That happened.

Joe Rogan 2:07 ... that you fought Saturday night, but then unfortunately there's the injury. You know?

Narrator 2:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:11 Belal has the accidental eye poke and it's another, you know, another unfortunate situation. But at least during that l-

Leon Edwards 2:21 First round?

Joe Rogan 2:22 Yeah, the first round, they got to see your skill level.

Leon Edwards 2:24 Yeah, for sure. And I was just getting warmed up as well. I got... Over the last year and a half I've learned so much that I, I wanted to show and to have that, that incident happen, it's like... It's one in a million, right? When you, when you prepare, when you camp, you're like, "I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that." And then when that happened I was like... I thought... I thought it was like, "Okay, take five minutes. Let it, let it, let it, let it play out a little bit and then hopefully you can fight again." But he just... He's always that bad

Narrator 2:48 His eyes were so fucked.

Joe Rogan 2:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leon Edwards 2:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:50 And now, was it... It was a not quite... It wasn't a poke.

Leon Edwards 2:53 No, it wasn't a poke. It wasn't. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:54 It was like a knuckle. Like this.

Leon Edwards 2:56 If, if, if you could see the picture, it's like... You're, you're a kicker, right? So when-

Joe Rogan 2:59 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 3:00 Wh- wh- when you're kicking you don't hold, you don't hold your fist and kick like this, right? You kinda use it to... Momentum to s-

Joe Rogan 3:06 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 3:06 ... swing your arm back. And as I was doing it, it kinda just, like, grazed his eyes. Well, not grazed. It kind of went deep, but it grazed his eyes a bit and then-

Joe Rogan 3:15 But was it, like, the front knuckles?

Leon Edwards 3:17 It looked like it from the pictures. Like, I c-

Joe Rogan 3:18 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 3:18 I couldn't tell. I didn't feel it. I thought it was the, the, the kick that got him in his body and he, and then he fell down-

Joe Rogan 3:24 Oh.

Leon Edwards 3:24 ... at the start, you know? Then when he started grabbing his eyes, I was like, "Oh, shit. I got, I got... (laughs) I caught him in his eye." You know?

Joe Rogan 3:29 Right.

Leon Edwards 3:30 But I thought it was just literally the kick that caught him 'cause I did this and then...

Joe Rogan 3:34 I think Dana put a photo on his Instagram, Jamie.

Leon Edwards 3:38 I think it was a knuckle. It weren't, it weren't the-

Joe Rogan 3:40 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 3:40 It weren't this for sure.

Joe Rogan 3:42 It's, uh, so unfortunate, man. But, I mean, for you what I was getting at was that it has to be so frustrating. Here you are... Oh, another ad blocker. Here, here you are. You have this long layoff-

Leon Edwards 3:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:54 ... and fights keep getting canceled and then you finally get a fight, you're performing really well and then this happens.

Leon Edwards 4:00 This happened. It was like the bad luck, right? The last y- (laughs) the last year or so just one after another. After the Woodley fight... I was meant to fight Woodley in, um, in London in, in March-

Narrator 4:10 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 4:10 ... and, um, had that canceled the week before, on the Sunday before the fight. And then from there just bad luck, bad luck, bad luck trickling down, so-

Joe Rogan 4:20 There it is.

Leon Edwards 4:21 So-

Joe Rogan 4:21 Yeah, it's like the-

Leon Edwards 4:21 There.

Joe Rogan 4:21 Yeah, it's like the bottom of your finger.

Leon Edwards 4:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:24 So it's not like it's straightforward.

Leon Edwards 4:25 Ah.

Joe Rogan 4:25 It's like it's just getting in there. That's terrible though.

Leon Edwards 4:29 And, and it wasn't the eyeball, right? It's like the... Under the eyelid.

Joe Rogan 4:33 Yeah, yeah.

Leon Edwards 4:33 You know? 'Cause I saw, I saw Belal, um, Sunday in a casino in Vegas and his eyes was fine, just the... It's the lid that, um, that was bruised, but...

Joe Rogan 4:43 Yeah, he said the v- the vision started returning the next day and now he said there's no permanent damage, so he's gonna be okay. He had his lid stitched up and-

Leon Edwards 4:50 Yeah, I, I wish him well. Felt, felt good.

Joe Rogan 4:53 Uh, he, uh... He's a great guy and, uh, uh, uh, was a great opponent for you too because he's so relentless, he's, you know, he's constantly moving forward. He's a tough guy.

Leon Edwards 5:02 He's durable.

Joe Rogan 5:02 Yeah, he's very-

Leon Edwards 5:03 Very durable.

Joe Rogan 5:03 ... very durable.

Leon Edwards 5:03 When he caught me with a head kick in the first round and I kind of rush, rushed my work a little bit. I kind of went wild and started swinging, swinging for him, but I should have picked my shots a little bit better, but... He's tough, he's durable, but he doesn't beat me in, in a, in a given day, you know? I, I, I believe if we fight 10 times I'll, I'll beat him 10 times and that's just it. He was, he was, uh, a late step in for... Hamzat fell out and I think he should go back, work his way back up, and then hopefully we can meet somewhere down the line. But for now I'm looking towards a title shot. I'm looking towards being a world champion.

Joe Rogan 5:35 Do you think that, uh, the title shot is warranted just because of your previous work and just because of the great first round that you had? But, I mean, do you feel like there's any unfinished business because of the way that fight ended?

Leon Edwards 5:47 With Belal?

Joe Rogan 5:48 Y- yeah, with Belal.

Leon Edwards 5:48 Um, I don't believe so. I think, uh, from the first round... I'm normally... I'm, I'm a slow starter, right? So if that's my s- (laughs) uh... If, if that's my first round, you're not making it to the, to the fifth, you know? So, um-I think everyone saw where the fight was going and it wouldn't have made it to- attention to number five, so w- we- yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:09 I understand your confidence, I really do. And this is not to demean that at all.

Leon Edwards 6:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:14 But you gotta- you gotta give the guy an opportunity, right? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like if-

Leon Edwards 6:20 Uh-huh.

Joe Rogan 6:20 ... if- if- here's my point. If the fight went the first round, if the eye poke didn't happen-

Leon Edwards 6:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:24 ... the referee just stopped the fight, everybody would be like-

Leon Edwards 6:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:25 ... "What are you doing? Well, you know where this fight is going." Well, you don't know where a fight is going 'cause fights are crazy. Like weird shit happens. People slip, guy gets them in a choke, like weird stuff happens.

Leon Edwards 6:35 No, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:35 You know, people get injured, you know, someone throws a calf kick, all of a sudden your leg goes numb.

Leon Edwards 6:39 Like bam. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 6:39 You get hit with a punch. Weird shit happens. You... Fights are crazy, you know that?

Leon Edwards 6:44 No, it's- it's crazy but, um...

Joe Rogan 6:46 You know what I'm saying though? I know your confidence.

Leon Edwards 6:46 No, no, no. I know what you're saying but I would have- (laughs) I would- I would've won that fight clearly. Joe, normally-

Joe Rogan 6:51 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 6:51 ... normally I'm- I'm a slow starter in the first round, right?

Joe Rogan 6:54 I know, yeah.

Leon Edwards 6:54 Like, so I would've... I felt great Saturday night and even I'm a... I felt good, but I know he's not beating me.

Joe Rogan 7:01 I-

Leon Edwards 7:01 You know, and, um...

Joe Rogan 7:02 ... and completely appreciate your confidence, but as a fan of you-

Leon Edwards 7:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:05 ... and as a fan of Belal-

Leon Edwards 7:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:07 ... um, I don't think it would be a bad thing to run back.

Leon Edwards 7:10 Not straightaway. You know, I'm looking to... That's my ninth- my ninth fight, right, in a row.

Joe Rogan 7:14 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 7:15 Um, eight, I went on eight-fight win streak before Belal. Um, I would've won the fight. So that would be ninth fight, um, without- without a loss from getting, um, beat by Usman five, six years ago. So, I feel I've done enough work now to prove that, uh, I belong at least in the normal contender fight or title fight, you know, so I- I can Totally appreciate your position, but I can also appreciate Belal's position, you know? No, I- I know where he's coming from.

Joe Rogan 7:40 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 7:40 I would say if I was him, I'd probably do the same thing, right? He's ranked number, what, 13, 14 and, you know, this big opportunity, his first main event, um, number three guy in the world. So, I know where he's approaching it from, but I am looking- looking for my own- own career, right? I want to look towards the title shot.

Joe Rogan 7:55 I understand. I understand.

Leon Edwards 7:56 Hopefully we'll- we'll get it.

Joe Rogan 7:57 Yeah, you've had all these weird situations where things fell apart. It's, uh, it's very unfortunate and, uh, did you feel like the Khamzat fight was strange too? Because, like, here's this guy who's only had a few fights in the UFC.

Leon Edwards 8:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:10 He's got a lot of hype behind him 'cause he's had, like, the Mirshah fight was a great result.

Leon Edwards 8:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:13 He looked fantastic, but then all of a sudden he's fighting you.

Leon Edwards 8:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:16 Like...

Leon Edwards 8:17 It- it was weird, right? 'Cause we... Well, two weeks before that, Dana White came out and he's like, "Oh, no, I'm never gonna fight Leon, or no one in top five." (laughs) Then next week he's like, "Leon, you wanna fight?" I was like, "You just said I- you... I'm too high ranked for him." But, um...

Joe Rogan 8:31 Where do you think that came from?

Leon Edwards 8:32 I don't know. I don't... I feel every- everyone was turning him down, you know, and-

Joe Rogan 8:35 Oh.

Leon Edwards 8:35 ... um, no one... everyone was turning me down as well, so Dana was like, "Okay, you want to fight him?" I was like, "Okay, let... What- what about Colby?" He's like... Colby said no. "What about Masvidal?" Masvidal said no. "What about Wonderboy?" Wonderboy's injured. So I was like, "Okay, who's got the most hype in the division now, um, that I could, like, piggyback off to get to a to- world title shot, right?" And this was a kid. Dana White built him up as this- this kid that can't be beaten, he's tough and... So I was like, "Okay, I'll go out there, I'll- I'll- I'll fight him. And when- when I beat him, I'll fight for the world title." And that- that was my plan, right? To use, um, this hype they're building around him to get me to a world title shot 'cause I'm a... I'm always looking towards the title shot, right? So anyway I can get there easier-

Joe Rogan 9:16 Right, of course.

Leon Edwards 9:16 ... um, I will then use Khamzat to- to get there.

Joe Rogan 9:18 Isn't it weird how hype comes along sometimes? Like some guys just get-

Leon Edwards 9:22 Random.

Joe Rogan 9:23 ... they just get washed up in hype and they're just flying down the river. Like, what's going on?

Leon Edwards 9:27 I know, like... (laughs) I've been in promotion for so long. I had like a eight-second knockout and everything.

Joe Rogan 9:32 Yes.

Leon Edwards 9:33 I did- I did exactly what he did, but like you said, right, just random, just comes from nowhere and...

Joe Rogan 9:37 Well, it's like-

Leon Edwards 9:38 ... yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:38 ... sometimes it's justified.

Leon Edwards 9:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:40 Like remember when, uh, Joaquin Buckley, uh, when he landed on, um... What... How do you say his da... How do... How the fu... He's got a... The- the gentleman he kicked with that wild kick.

Leon Edwards 9:51 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:51 How do you say his last name?

Leon Edwards 9:52 Uh...

Joe Rogan 9:53 Um...

Leon Edwards 9:54 It was a good- that was a good kick.

Joe Rogan 9:54 It's a crazy kick.

Leon Edwards 9:55 That was a good kick. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 9:56 Holding on one leg and does a- does a jump spinning back kick to the face with the other leg.

Leon Edwards 10:00 That was, that was pra- I was practicing it in the gyms next day. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:03 (laughs) It's a wild technique.

Leon Edwards 10:05 Isn't it? Kasana-Ganeai?

Joe Rogan 10:07 Kasana-Ganeai, right? That's how you say it, right? Um, that's- that's hype that's deserved. But, you know, every now and then... I mean, that makes sense, like then people are paying attention to him. You know, but every now and then, like, a guy will get so much hype and then it becomes like a thing of its own. Like people start paying attention to it more than anything. And it's- it... It's weird, like personality and hype, it's so important for selling fights.

Leon Edwards 10:34 Yeah. Yeah, 100%.

Joe Rogan 10:35 So important.

Leon Edwards 10:36 It- it- it's been like that since back in the day, right?

Joe Rogan 10:38 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 10:38 Since boxing's like, "Who can put the bums on the seat?"

Joe Rogan 10:41 Yep. That's everything.

Leon Edwards 10:42 That- that's- that's everything, right?

Joe Rogan 10:43 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 10:43 So it's not really about skill set re-... A bit, about skill set, but it's more about who can put the most bums in the seat and...

Joe Rogan 10:48 It's about everything, right?

Leon Edwards 10:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:50 Like remember when Prince Naseem Hamed would come out on a throne and they'd carry him out.

Leon Edwards 10:53 Throne, dancing and shit. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:54 Yeah, there's- there's- there's certain things that have to sell. Are you... Do you ever think about that, like, "Man, maybe I should talk more shit or maybe I should-

Leon Edwards 11:03 Um...

Joe Rogan 11:04 ... be more flamboyant. Like how do I get more hype or should I just keep winning?"

Leon Edwards 11:07 Yeah, should just keep winning, keep doing your thing, right? 'Cause-

Joe Rogan 11:10 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 11:10 ... if I come out tomorrow now and start dressing like... everyone's wearing, like, robes and shit now.

Joe Rogan 11:14 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 11:14 So I start wearing a robe and paint my hair pink and people be like, "What the hell are you doing?" You know? So, um, I think-

Joe Rogan 11:19 Then you look desperate, right?

Leon Edwards 11:20 Yeah, exactly, look weird. So I think be yourself, um, keep winning, that's- that's important and they can't deny winners, right?

Joe Rogan 11:27 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 11:27 That's how I believe. If you work hard and you win, they can't deny you, so I- I'll win it my way and I'll feel more... I enjoy it better when I win it my way, so...

Joe Rogan 11:35 What has it been like going through this- this lull where you- you couldn't get a fight?

Leon Edwards 11:39 Um, a lot of ups and downs, obviously you got, um... Especially, this- this was my fourth camp before I fought Belal, um, caught in the Woodley camp, so it was- it was lots of ups and downs, but I- I- I used that time off to- to grow, right? I kind of changed my men- my mentality, like instead sitting around and bitching and complaining about how no one- no one would want to fight me, use it as, like, a blessing, um...... use it to improve your skill set, use it to improve your mindset and that's, that's what I did in the last year, year and a half. You know, I used it to approach the game different. If you control, if you c- I can control what I can control, which is all I have to do is turn up to training, that's it, right? I can't control Masvidal or Kobe not fighting me, but I can control training and that's, that's what I did. I controlled what I could control and turned up to the gym, working hard, dedicating myself, staying disciplined because I know one day I'm, I'm, I'm gonna fight, right? So, instead of sitting around and complaining and not growing, not learning, w- maybe I was use it, I used it into my favor. It's, it's a blessing and I have grown leaps and leaps since my last fight when I fought RDA and, uh, it was... I feel good. I feel good. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 12:48 Now, when you say improve your mindset, like, what do you mean by that?

Leon Edwards 12:51 Just the way I look at the game, you know. Um, as before, I was kind of fighting to win not, not, not to hurt them, you know, and I'm fighting now to hurt them. I wanna, I wanna, I wanna be a world champion. I feel like winning is enough now, (laughs) you know, because I'm, I'm on an eight-fight win streak. That's the third most in the division history. Um, it's GSP one, I think, or no, K- Kamaru's one, I think, GSP and then me. So now I'm fighting to, to hurt them and to cement my, my, my name in the division and that's my mindset now. I'm not fighting to win no more. I've won enough of... I know I can beat them, you know, and the more I win, the more confidence I get, and the more... The more I compete against these guys, the more I know I can be a world champion. You know, it's... Coming from the UK, they all told... Ev- everyone tells you that, "Ah, he's from the UK, you can't wrestle, you can't do this, you can't do that," and I'm proving it fight, fight by fight and I'm gonna achieve being world champion coming from the UK and it's gonna be, it's gonna mean so much for the kids coming under me. That's my motivation to, to be a world champion.

Joe Rogan 13:51 So this was, like, a conscious decision. D- do you remember making it? Do you remember deciding, like, "I'm gonna stop trying to just win fights."

Leon Edwards 13:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:58 "I'm, I'm gonna decide to hurt people."

Leon Edwards 14:01 Yeah. Yeah. I thought... It weren't, like, a day, but I was made up my mind just over the last year or so, year and a half, my, my mind just changing that you, you, you got everything to be a, to, to, to do this. Why, why you... I, I don't know what it was. It was kind of just fighting just to... (sighs) It's like... I don't know. You're kinda fighting just to, like, win, right? I think with the m- the money as well. Like, in USA, it's like if you lose you just get half of your pay. But now, like, Saturday night, it was like a flat fee, right? So it's win, lose or draw, I get, I get the same money, so... And I still went out there and performed the best of my abilities. So they should probably change that as well, but, um... Yeah, I, I think the mindset changed over time, it weren't, like, just one, one day. It was, like, over the last year or so my mind frame changed.

Joe Rogan 14:44 Do you ever work with a mental coach or anything like that?

Leon Edwards 14:47 No, no.

Joe Rogan 14:47 Never?

Leon Edwards 14:47 No, I don't believe in-

Joe Rogan 14:48 Really?

Leon Edwards 14:49 Not, no, don't believe in it 'cause I, I got, I got teammates that do it, you know, and work with, um, coaches, but I feel my life experiences helped me, um, in, in the position I'm in.

Joe Rogan 14:59 What, what specific life experiences?

Leon Edwards 15:01 Um, just coming from where I came from, you know, um, a lot of ups and downs as I came from some... H- u- ups and downs is, like, the norm to me, right? I, I, I, I, I look forward to, to, to facing ad- adversities. When I do face it, I know I can get through it and so that, that, that's what it is, really. I look forward to adversities, so I know 'cause I've been, I've been here before (laughs) , I've been doing this since I was a kid, you know, so, um, it's... I, I, I look forward to it.

Joe Rogan 15:28 When did you get started in martial arts? How old were you?

Leon Edwards 15:30 17.

Joe Rogan 15:31 17?

Leon Edwards 15:31 Yeah, yeah. Like, straight into, into, um, MMA. I didn't start late.

Joe Rogan 15:35 Oh, really?

Leon Edwards 15:36 Yeah, I didn't do nothing before. I was, like, hanging around on the, on the street with your friends and getting into martial arts, so.

Joe Rogan 15:42 That's interesting 'cause when you watch you kick, you would swear that you had, like, a traditional martial arts background.

Leon Edwards 15:46 Yeah, I did, I did. Everyone said that (laughs) , everyone said that, so I had my gym, but I did nothing at all before. I went straight from, um, hanging around on the street with my friends to one day a gym was getting built, um, in my area. My mom said try it out, I tried it out and I was... stuck to it.

Joe Rogan 15:59 Wow.

Leon Edwards 16:00 And fell in love with it and... I fell in love with the striking first, um, even though I was doing all of it, but the striking just caught my attention and then, um, then the grappling came later.

Joe Rogan 16:09 It's so interesting now that you're seeing, like, a whole crop of kids that are evolving that came straight-

Leon Edwards 16:15 Straight.

Joe Rogan 16:15 ... into MMA, nothing else.

Leon Edwards 16:16 Yeah. I can-

Joe Rogan 16:17 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 16:17 I can imagine, like, another, like, 20 years 'cause my son now, he's, he's doing martial arts, he does kickboxing and, um, jiu-jitsu, so I can't imagine, like, their generation, what they're gonna be like, right? 'Cause-

Joe Rogan 16:26 Right.

Leon Edwards 16:26 ... every, every fight, every year there's, like, a new technique that's coming out and, like that, that calf kick? That's, like, a new technique what lasts, what? Couple years-

Joe Rogan 16:35 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 16:35 ... they've, they've been using it?

Joe Rogan 16:36 Four or five years, yeah.

Leon Edwards 16:37 Yeah, exactly. So I'm looking forward to see how far MMA goes and what, what's the next things that's, that's gonna come.

Joe Rogan 16:43 Did the calf kick... Did, like, did that surprise you, like, the popularity of it?

Leon Edwards 16:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:49 How quickly it became, like, an-

Leon Edwards 16:51 (sighs)

Joe Rogan 16:51 ... so, such an important technique 'cause you land a few of them, just three or four of them and then the-

Leon Edwards 16:56 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:56 ... guy's fucked.

Leon Edwards 16:57 I, I first had it when, um, I went to AKA and, um, Luke Rockhold did it to me. This was like five years ago. Um, and he, he kicked my calf in, in... when I was sparring but I didn't feel it when I was sparring. After the, after the spar my whole legs was dead for like a week, you know, so I thought, "Well, that's, that's a good kick." But I got, like, skinny shins (laughs) , I'm, like, scared to, like, break my legs.

Joe Rogan 17:18 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 17:18 So I never... I, I, I never tried it but, um, it's a good, good technique.

Joe Rogan 17:21 Right, when you see, like, the Anderson Silva break.

Leon Edwards 17:23 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:24 When he went-

Leon Edwards 17:24 My... I got some bony legs bro, so-

Joe Rogan 17:26 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 17:26 ... I'm not one with kicking the calf. I'm like body kicks, leg. I kick the, the, the thighs and the body and the head but the calf, I think's, like, a technique too as well, right? You gotta get, like, the, the meaty part of the shin, so-

Joe Rogan 17:36 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 17:37 It's a good technique to use.

Joe Rogan 17:38 It's just so strange when you see, like, the Dustin Poirier fight, the first fight with Conor-

Leon Edwards 17:43 Conor.

Joe Rogan 17:43 ... and then the second fight with Conor-

Leon Edwards 17:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:44 ... how different it was not kicking the thigh but instead kicking the calf, like-

Leon Edwards 17:49 Shut him down, right?

Joe Rogan 17:49 Shut him down, yeah.

Leon Edwards 17:51 Shoot, like, what? Three kicks it landed, you think?

Joe Rogan 17:53 I don't know. I... I mean, you'd have to go back and watch it.

Leon Edwards 17:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:55 It was... I think it was a few, but-

Leon Edwards 17:57 I think... Uh, watch... When watching the countdown, like, Conor approached the game, like, just like just boxing, right? You can tell he... like a boxing coaching and that's all he was doing so for... That's a f- that's good technique to use to... If, if you're gonna fight him, you're looking at his... what he's doing in his training camp, you're gonna (laughs) you're gonna kick him, right?

Joe Rogan 18:13 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 18:13 He's a boxer so, um...... fair play to Dustin. He does a good job.

Joe Rogan 18:17 Yeah. Oh, he did an amazing job, but, you know, Conor has that southpaw stance, heavy on the front leg.

Leon Edwards 18:21 Heavy.

Joe Rogan 18:21 Puts a lot of weight down there.

Leon Edwards 18:22 Heavy. Eh, especially when he, when he throws his back hand, you know? And he timed it perfectly. He throws his back hand and he kind of, like, slipped to the inside and then landed a kick. It was a, it's a good technique to use.

Joe Rogan 18:31 Yeah, um, when you see, uh, techniques like that are sort of new to the sport, it's, uh, do you start looking? Like, what's gonna be next? Like, what, uh, what is it? Gonna be an ax kick? Like, what is-

Leon Edwards 18:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:44 ... what's the new thing that people are gonna figure out how to do?

Leon Edwards 18:47 I know. I'm trying to think. Because, uh, coffee, it came from nowhere, right?

Joe Rogan 18:50 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 18:50 I'm trying to think of what, what else-

Joe Rogan 18:51 Benson Henderson was the first guy I saw throw it.

Leon Edwards 18:53 Yeah, yeah. Did he do it? Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:53 He was the first guy. I, I remember him doing it.

Leon Edwards 18:55 To be effective with it? To, like, stop people with it?

Joe Rogan 18:57 It wasn't as effective-

Leon Edwards 18:58 Oh, okay.

Joe Rogan 18:58 ... for some reason, but he was using it.

Leon Edwards 19:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:00 I mean, it was definitely doing damage, but it wa- he wasn't... Like, a lot of guys are stopping people with those now.

Leon Edwards 19:05 Yeah, stopping it. Um, yeah. I'm trying to think of what other technique he could use, right? 'Cause the elbow's already in.

Joe Rogan 19:10 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 19:11 (sighs) I don't know, put an uppercut elbow or something. I don't know.

Joe Rogan 19:13 Maybe. Remember when Anderson did that?

Leon Edwards 19:15 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:16 That was crazy. Against Tony Fryklund, right?

Leon Edwards 19:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:18 That was in England.

Leon Edwards 19:18 Anderson in, in his prime is like... My favorite-

Joe Rogan 19:22 People forget.

Leon Edwards 19:22 My favorite fighter, man. To this day, he's, I think he's the GOAT, you know, from how easy he made it look.

Joe Rogan 19:27 People forget because of the, the, the end of his career.

Leon Edwards 19:30 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:31 Some... If you just stop looking at the end of cr- his career and go back and watch, like, the Dan Henderson fight. Dana White sent me the Dan Henderson fight the other day. He goes, "Watch this fight again."

Leon Edwards 19:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:39 He goes, "He fucking throws Dan Henderson around."

Leon Edwards 19:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:41 Who d- who throws Dan Henderson around like this?

Leon Edwards 19:43 The GOAT. (exhales) The GOAT.

Joe Rogan 19:44 When he was-

Leon Edwards 19:45 Niles Goodman.

Joe Rogan 19:46 When he was in his prime. When he was one of the-

Leon Edwards 19:47 I remember watching when I was, I was like 18 years old and watching Silva perform, you know, and, uh, it was Stephan Bonnar he was like...

Joe Rogan 19:53 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 19:53 He just knocked him out with a jab. I was like, "Oh, God." And I...

Joe Rogan 19:56 That was Forrest Griffin.

Leon Edwards 19:57 Forrest Griffin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:58 It was crazy. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 19:59 He was... He's good. He's good.

Joe Rogan 20:01 Well, he was just, uh... His timing and his precision was just so amazing. Like when he front kicked Vitor in the face. Oh, my God. Damn.

Leon Edwards 20:08 I've been trying to learn, I've been trying to learn that kick now for (laughs) ... In sparring for, like, years. I just can't get the timing of it. 'Cause you always go, like, straight up and you just, like, skim the lip or something, but you've got to get it, get it, like, under the chin, right? To like, to knock them out.

Joe Rogan 20:21 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 20:21 But, it's a good technique to use. I, I think you... To land it as well, if you look them in, in the eye and then get, get, get them staring at you, then you go bang, th- then you land it right. But if you're looking in the chest when you're sparring, b- w- what's that I do? You look in the chest, they look at me in the eye. Then you freeze them a little bit, then you go bang. You know? And that's how I caught Belal on Saturday with a head kick. I looked him in his eye. H- he looked at me, then I dipped, then he followed, he followed my eyes and then I k- kicked him in his head. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 20:48 Um, I think Anderson looked down. I think he did one of those where he looked down, then he kicked up.

Leon Edwards 20:52 Boom.

Joe Rogan 20:53 I think that's what he did to Vitor. I'm pretty sure.

Leon Edwards 20:56 Did he?

Joe Rogan 20:56 Yeah, I think so. See if you can find that. The, uh, Anderson Silva KO Vitor Belfort fight.

Leon Edwards 21:02 Did he look him in his eyes first though, to like freeze him? Then look down and go up?

Joe Rogan 21:04 Uh-huh. I don't remember, but I do remember thinking that he looked at the body and then threw it to the face.

Leon Edwards 21:10 Whack. Nah, it was good.

Joe Rogan 21:11 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 21:11 Good, good.

Joe Rogan 21:11 Which is a sneaky thing to do, right? Told him to look down and then kick up.

Leon Edwards 21:15 Yeah. Nah, it was good.

Joe Rogan 21:16 Anderson was a master. He really was, man. I remember the first time he fought Chris Leben. Uh, the odds were... Like, he was favored, but not by much. And, uh, I remember telling my friends, "Bet the house."

Leon Edwards 21:27 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:27 "Bet the house on the Brazilian."

Leon Edwards 21:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 21:29 I'm like, "This motherfucker is on another level, like, they don't even know yet." Let's see it here. Here it is. See, he's, he's looking down.

Leon Edwards 21:37 Whack.

Joe Rogan 21:38 Boom.

Leon Edwards 21:38 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 21:39 Fuck. Perfect front kick. And before that, I remember I had a conversation with someone. I'm like, "Ah, you really don't throw it to the face." (laughs) Like, most people didn't...

Leon Edwards 21:50 Yeah, to the body, right?

Joe Rogan 21:51 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 21:52 You just, you just go to the body with it?

Joe Rogan 21:53 Most people didn't think that that was a technique that you could use effectively to the face. Especially on a seasoned striker like Vitor. That was insane. Oh, look, Dana White got caught. He wasn't even watching.

Leon Edwards 22:03 Wow. Bang. Right through the guard.

Joe Rogan 22:06 Look at that. Back that up again. You can see Dana White is playing with his phone.

Leon Edwards 22:09 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:09 Look at him. See him? Look at him.

Leon Edwards 22:10 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:10 Look at him there. Wasn't even watching. How dare you, Dana?

Leon Edwards 22:14 Now I see what

Joe Rogan 22:15 You missed one of the greatest KOs in the history of the sport. And then after that, Lyoto Machida did it to Randy Couture. He did a-

Leon Edwards 22:21 I remember I seen that one as well.

Joe Rogan 22:21 ... jumping front kick. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 22:23 He was good as well. In his prime, Machida.

Joe Rogan 22:25 Pshh.

Leon Edwards 22:25 Then he kind of just, like, fell off, right?

Joe Rogan 22:27 Well, you know. I mean, how long-

Leon Edwards 22:29 Well, not fell off, but yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:30 How long can you compete at that level? You know? It's like for some guys, they can sustain it for 10 years. In some guys, it's only like three or four, and then-

Leon Edwards 22:39 What, what age do you think prime is in MMA would you say?

Joe Rogan 22:42 I think it depends on how you train. I think it depends on y- the amount of damage your body's taken, whether or not you've had-

Leon Edwards 22:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:48 ... serious injuries. Back injuries seem to fuck people up more than anything 'cause knee injuries are bad, but-

Leon Edwards 22:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:54 ... you can recover from them.

Leon Edwards 22:56 Calm down from it.

Joe Rogan 22:56 At least un- unless it's bad meniscus tears. Ligaments seem to be, you can recover from them, but it depends. For, I think for most fighters, it's in the 30s. It's like 30-

Leon Edwards 23:08 2:33.

Joe Rogan 23:08 ... to 34, 35.

Leon Edwards 23:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:10 That seems to be the prime. And if you're natural, that's when the wheels fall off. Right around 37, 38 it's-

Leon Edwards 23:17 It's TRT. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:20 Yeah. Yeah, that's when you go to ONE FC and-

Leon Edwards 23:21 ONE FC and Benidorm. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:24 (laughs) For real, right?

Leon Edwards 23:25 Nah, for real.

Joe Rogan 23:26 Yes.

Leon Edwards 23:26 Juiced up and ready to go.

Joe Rogan 23:28 Listen, man.

Leon Edwards 23:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:29 We're, we're just telling the truth.

Leon Edwards 23:30 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 23:31 We're just telling the truth.

Leon Edwards 23:32 Nah, yeah. I think, I think the prime in MMA, um, yeah, about 30 to 35.

Joe Rogan 23:37 When they were doing TRT though, didn't you think it was kind of crazy? Like when, when you saw Vitor, like when Vitof, when Vitor fought Rockhold, when Vitor fought Bisping, and he just had muscles coming out of his teeth.

Leon Edwards 23:48 Yeah. Another, another level. Like the Brazilians at one point, like, owned MMA, right?

Joe Rogan 23:53 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 23:53 Then once USADA came in, all fell off.

Joe Rogan 23:55 Mm.

Leon Edwards 23:55 Which is weird, but...

Joe Rogan 23:57 Well-

Leon Edwards 23:57 I'm not saying they're on juice, but it's, it's a weird thing.

Joe Rogan 23:59 Well, clearly some, some were on juice.

Leon Edwards 24:01 Yeah, T- yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:02 There's no way they weren't. And Vitor was on TRT. I mean, it was, it was an open thing.

Leon Edwards 24:06 You know-

Joe Rogan 24:06 You were allowed to have it, and which is strange because like the thing that young people have is y- It's like this weird balance, right? You're young, you have this incredible body.

Leon Edwards 24:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:16 You move fast, you heal quick, but you don't have the knowledge and experience that an older fighter has. But then if you take an older fighter-

Leon Edwards 24:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:24 ... and then you fill them up with juice, now you got some weird situations.

Leon Edwards 24:27 Both of them. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:27 Because now you got both. You got a guy who's got experience, and then you got a guy whose body behaves like a young guy's body.

Leon Edwards 24:34 Nah. Um, I've never to- touched no juice, so...

Joe Rogan 24:37 I understand.

Leon Edwards 24:38 But I'm- I'm- I'm-

Joe Rogan 24:38 But you're young.

Leon Edwards 24:39 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:39 When you hit like 40, you might-

Leon Edwards 24:41 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:41 You might be like, "Damn." Someone says, "Leon-"

Leon Edwards 24:43 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:43 "... come on over to Singapore. We got some big fights for you."

Leon Edwards 24:45 (laughs) Like, "Oh, gee, j- j- jack."

Joe Rogan 24:47 All right.

Leon Edwards 24:47 Nah, I felt good, but my body was good last week. I felt good last week, so I was a jack last week, so it's all good. Nah.

Joe Rogan 24:53 How old are you now?

Leon Edwards 24:54 29.

Joe Rogan 24:55 Yeah, you're still-

Leon Edwards 24:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah, still.

Joe Rogan 24:56 You're not even in your prime yet.

Leon Edwards 24:57 Nah, it's coming.

Joe Rogan 24:57 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 24:58 Exactly, so I'm- I'm beating all these guys, you know, so I think everyone above me, like 35, 34. I think Usman is 30, 33, 34. Masvidal 36. They're all, like, old, not-

Joe Rogan 25:09 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 25:09 ... not that old, but they're all, like, older men, you know, so I'm not the youngest guy in the, in- in the top five, so...

Joe Rogan 25:14 Were you surprised that they decided to have, uh, Usman and, uh, Masvidal too?

Leon Edwards 25:18 Um, surprised, no, 'cause I know, like you said, it's about money, right? Put- put- putting asses in the seat, and, um, I think if they fight 10 out of 10 times, I think Usman would probably win nine, probably. Um, it's a good, entertaining fight for the fans, but martial artists is, uh, yeah, one of them fights, right? It's like, Usman's gonna go out there, he's gonna probably grapple him again, probably. Um...

Joe Rogan 25:46 I wanna see what- what Masvidal can do with a camp, you know? 'Cause-

Leon Edwards 25:50 Um...

Joe Rogan 25:50 ... clearly he wasn't prepared, physically, you know what I mean?

Leon Edwards 25:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:53 You just take a fight on six days notice, there's no way you can really be prepared.

Leon Edwards 25:57 Nah, he was training. He was, he, he had like wrestling coaches, like, I remember watching him just, um, he was- he was like getting good- good- good training in, you know? He weren't, like, sitting on- on the couch for the last s- like six months, didn't take six days and- and- and full...

Joe Rogan 26:12 Right, but you know as well as I know-

Leon Edwards 26:14 Nah, I know.

Joe Rogan 26:14 ... there's a difference between just training-

Leon Edwards 26:16 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:16 ... and then preparing for a fight, right?

Leon Edwards 26:18 Yeah, yeah. Um, what, you think he beats him?

Joe Rogan 26:20 No, I'm not saying that.

Leon Edwards 26:22 Oh, okay, okay.

Joe Rogan 26:22 But- but I, what I am saying is there were some very interesting moments in that fight where he was out-striking him.

Leon Edwards 26:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:28 But, you know, Kamaru was just so strong. He's such a good wrestler.

Leon Edwards 26:31 Nah, yeah. And he's durable. And I think he dropped him, um, Bareld dropped him the other day, so, um, it'd be a- it'd be a good fight. I'll be watching it for sure, you know. But, um, I think if I had to put money on it, I'd probably go, um, Usman for the- for the win again.

Joe Rogan 26:45 Well, once he, you know, I mean, once a guy beats a guy, he's always gonna be the favorite to fight again. But it's just, it's just, uh, it's an interesting fight. I- I just, I'm very, I'm ex- I'm excited to see how Masvidal performs-

Leon Edwards 26:58 With the camp?

Joe Rogan 26:59 ... with the camp.

Leon Edwards 26:59 Nah, it'll be good. It'll be good. I'd- I'd love to see it as well, but I can't see what he could do different, you know. He's gonna come out again, be what he, what he does, he's gonna swing, (laughs) swing- swing for the fences and try to knock him out. Usman's gonna, um, high guard and just grapple him, and I just can't see what he does different. Unless he catches him and knock him out, just can't see, um, what he does different.

Joe Rogan 27:21 When, uh, you and Masvidal got at it at that post-fight press conference-

Leon Edwards 27:26 In London?

Joe Rogan 27:26 ... like, did you expect that a fight was gonna come after that, that you would eventually...

Leon Edwards 27:30 Um, yeah, for sure. I thought, okay, next, that's- that's- that's the next fight, right, straight away-

Joe Rogan 27:34 Right.

Leon Edwards 27:35 ... and to have it like now, it's what, two years, two, two and a half years? It's like, Usman ain't fought yet. I've been calling him out ever since-

Joe Rogan 27:41 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 27:41 ... and the- the UFC wants it, (laughs) um, but he just keep turning it down and said, uh, "No, I don't wanna fight," so...

Joe Rogan 27:47 Well, that's the weird thing. It's like you're at an elite level-

Leon Edwards 27:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:52 ... the top of the food chain in terms of your skill level-

Leon Edwards 27:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:55 ... but you're not as known as you should be with the skill level that you have. It's just-

Leon Edwards 28:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:01 I mean, it's like, it's- it's like you're the best kept secret in the division. It's weird.

Leon Edwards 28:05 Yeah. Yeah, it- it's- it's a weird thing, but...

Joe Rogan 28:08 It'll change.

Leon Edwards 28:08 Yeah, it's gonna change-

Joe Rogan 28:09 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 28:09 ... 100%. It's coming, I can feel it. It's- it's changing, you know, slowly, but I think number, number one should fight number two, right? Number two shou- two... number three should fight number four, and that's the way it should be.

Joe Rogan 28:19 Right.

Leon Edwards 28:19 But it's like, I'd have to- I'd have to, like, go to, like, number 13 to fight Belal, I'll have to go to fight Khamzat. 'Cause all these guys are like divas, right? They're always demanding... Like Colby, for example, he was demanding title shots. Like, he just got beat, like, one fight ago, um, and got knocked out one fight ago, right? 'Cause-

Joe Rogan 28:35 No, he, he beat Tyron after that.

Leon Edwards 28:37 Yeah, so-

Joe Rogan 28:38 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 28:38 Yeah, so Tyron, then he-

Joe Rogan 28:39 Right.

Leon Edwards 28:39 He beat Tyron, then-

Joe Rogan 28:40 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 28:41 ... um, in four since, right? So...

Joe Rogan 28:42 He fought Usman, then he beat, it was just Tyron, right?

Leon Edwards 28:45 Ty-

Joe Rogan 28:45 That's-

Leon Edwards 28:45 It was one fight, right, after-

Joe Rogan 28:46 I think so.

Leon Edwards 28:47 ... after that.

Joe Rogan 28:47 I think it was just the Woodley fight.

Leon Edwards 28:50 Yeah, are you sure?

Joe Rogan 28:50 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 28:50 Are you sure it was?

Joe Rogan 28:51 Pretty sure.

Leon Edwards 28:53 So I don't- I don't think he'd- he'd deserve a title shot. He just got beat, like convincingly. He weren't, like, uh... It was- it was a close fight to be fair, but he did get stopped, you know, so I don't think he should get a title shot just straight away, um, so...

Joe Rogan 29:05 That's a fight you would like.

Leon Edwards 29:06 Colby?

Joe Rogan 29:06 The Colby fight, yeah.

Leon Edwards 29:07 Yeah. Now, yeah, for sure, 100%. Um, obviously I wanted the title shot, but now they're fighting, um...

Joe Rogan 29:12 The only reason why I would say it'd be better for you to fight someone before the title shot-

Leon Edwards 29:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:17 ... is just to get the hype out.

Leon Edwards 29:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:19 Just-

Leon Edwards 29:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:19 ... so that way the pay-per-view gets built up, so that you, you'll get more money, you know.

Leon Edwards 29:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:23 It'll be a bigger deal.

Leon Edwards 29:24 Nah, for sure. I won't, I won't be sitting around and waiting for the... I'll be fighting, you know, so we're trying to, we're trying to get it, and, um, Colby's a weird, (laughs) weird one, so we- we don't know what's gonna happen, but we're trying to get a fight done.

Joe Rogan 29:34 Yeah, well, the one thing that does come with Colby is a lot of attention, and that's-

Leon Edwards 29:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:38 ... that's the good-

Leon Edwards 29:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:39 ... the good part of it.

Leon Edwards 29:40 It's a g- it's a, and it's a good fight technically, you know. Um, I think all, I think the top, all the guys though are similar, right, in skill set, what they're gonna do when they fight me, right? If- they're gonna come to wrestle. If I fight Usman, he's gonna come to wrestle. Colby's gonna come to wrestle. Um, Belal doesn't come to wrestle. They all, I know what they're gonna do, you know. It's just, it's easier to prepare for them. You can, um... I was saying before, you couldn't, like, swap them out. So when, when Khamzat fell out, I was like, "Okay, put anyone in 'cause they're all, all gonna do the same thing anyway. So just drop another one in," and that- that's- that's what it was, uh, th- so normal.

Joe Rogan 30:14 They're all gonna try to grapple him-

Leon Edwards 30:16 Yeah, I didn't, yeah, I didn't try to grapple, but that means nothing to me. You know, I've, I've, I- I feel good when I'm grappling, I feel good with the striking, and, um, I just can't wait to show, show my skill set and show what I'm about. I- I haven't done what I could yet in, in a game, but I wanna show it, and I'm gonna show it.

Joe Rogan 30:33 When you put, when you put together a camp, like say if you get a Colby fight...

Leon Edwards 30:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:36 And do... Who designs your camp? Do you design everything yourself in terms of like when you do strength and conditioning, when you run, when you spar, when you hit mitts?

Leon Edwards 30:45 Um-Yeah. I, I, I don't got a head coach. Uh, ain't like-

Joe Rogan 30:48 Really?

Leon Edwards 30:48 Nah. I ain't got like one coach that I said, "This is my head coach." Right? I got like coaches for diff- different martial arts and they all come together and, um, all, I put them all, all together and they communicate like that. But I don't got like one person that say, "Okay, you have to do this. You have to do that. You have to do that." I prefer it that way as well, because I feel with, with head coaches, um, from my experience, it's like you do it my way or no way. You know what I mean? You can't train 10 guys the same way.

Joe Rogan 31:15 Right.

Leon Edwards 31:15 I think that's what coaches do. Like, well, if you've got one person, you train them all the same way. But I might be different. I'm tall and southpaw. He might be short and orthodox. You can't train me the same way you train him, you know? So, um, that's, that's what, that's what I do, and I feel comfortable. I feel, I feel good doing it that way, so each to their own. I don't think nothing's wrong with it, just for me, I prefer, um ... Obviously I talk back and forth with my coaches and, um, we run game plans together, you know what I mean? So if I don't agree with it ... 'Cause l- let's say they come- my coach, my striking coach come to me, be like, "Okay, for this fight you need to throw a head kick." I be like, "Yeah, but I don't want to throw a head kick this fight 'cause I don't think it's gonna work f- for this guy." You know? And, um, if I watch him and see what he does, so this ... That's, that's what I do, right? I watch a person and I break 'em down and say, "Okay, ev- everyone got habits, right, that they do?" Um, some people like to pass to the left. Some p- people like to pass to the right. So if you can, if he's good at passing to his left, if you can make him pass to his right, where it's not good, then you're gonna have more success. And that's what I try to do basically in, all over the game. So, if he's good at jabbing, um, if you take away the jab just by moving, um, out the way of it, then he has to throw something else, which is not natural to him. And that's the way I approach the game, really, is just try to, try to throw them off for what they're, what they're good at, but take it away from them and then let them use what they're bad at.

Joe Rogan 32:35 And so, if you put together a camp, so you basically just have all these people that you work with. You work with the wrestling coach-

Leon Edwards 32:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:41 ... jiu-jitsu coach, striking coach-

Leon Edwards 32:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:43 ... and then just you decide how the, how the fight's gonna play out based on how ... You're watching tapes. You're watching things.

Leon Edwards 32:49 Yeah, yeah. I watch, I watch tapes. No, th- they send information as well, you know. I'm not, not just like mastering it all myself.

Joe Rogan 32:55 Right.

Leon Edwards 32:55 They send like, "Okay, this is what he does." And then I'll look. I'll be like, "Okay, what would you do to, to counteract that?" And if they tell me, they tell me, I'll be like, "Okay." If it feels good to me, then I'll do it. But if it doesn't, if it's not natural. I think it has to be a natural movement, right? If you're kind of like forcing yourself to, um ... Like f- for example, this fight with Belal, my coach was like, "Okay, you need to throw the uppercut, the back uppercut 'cause y- he dips into it." But in sparring, I wasn't fu- sorry, or we're in, uh-

Joe Rogan 33:22 You can swear.

Leon Edwards 33:23 Oh, I can swear?

Joe Rogan 33:23 Yeah. It's the internet.

Leon Edwards 33:24 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:24 Fuck yeah.

Leon Edwards 33:26 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:26 Um, for, f-

Leon Edwards 33:27 That's hilarious. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 33:29 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 33:30 Um, yeah. But in sparring I was trying to, tried to do what he, what he told me to do, but every time I was throwing an uppercut the guy was catching me, um, over the top with a, with a, with a hook. You know? I was like, this doesn't, this didn't come natural to me. So I does, as I said to my dog, don't use that technique (laughs) for, for this fight, 'cause every time I'm trying it in sparring I'm getting caught with shots and, um-

Joe Rogan 33:50 In boxing that's what happens, right?

Leon Edwards 33:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:51 A lot of times when guys throw lead uppercuts.

Leon Edwards 33:53 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:54 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 33:54 But in boxing, they get off nice. Like Canelo, for example, he's-

Joe Rogan 33:57 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 33:57 ... he's good with it, you know. Like, he just like touch, you go bang and, and it's good. It looks good. But in boxing, the guys are like, they're more like, "Talk top right here." Right?

Joe Rogan 34:05 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 34:05 So he can work the body a bit more and, um, but in MMA you guys are more like elusive and there're long ... You got different guards. You got like lung guards, tight guards, everyone's different. So, um, yeah, I think boxing and striking is two different things.

Joe Rogan 34:21 Do you work with boxers at all?

Leon Edwards 34:23 Box- yeah, sparring. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:25 Yeah?

Leon Edwards 34:25 (laughs) If they go to boxing gyms it's like a war, right? Like-

Joe Rogan 34:27 Oh, yeah?

Leon Edwards 34:27 ... yeah, in the UK. Especially if you're, if you're an MMA fighter.

Joe Rogan 34:30 Oh.

Leon Edwards 34:31 If you go to ... If you go take a boxing gym, they're like, "Okay." My coach is always, always take me to them gyms and be like, "Okay, you spar this pro." And then he's like, it's always like just coming out bloody and just having a, having like a terror. It's never like a play spar. It's always like a ... If you're going to spar with a boxer, you're gonna have a war.

Joe Rogan 34:47 That doesn't seem like a lot of fun. (laughs)

Leon Edwards 34:49 Nah, it's not. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 34:51 How do you approach sparring? Do you think that you should like ... You see like Max Holloway-

Leon Edwards 34:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:55 ... like his last fight didn't spar at all and looked fucking amazing, like one of his best performances-

Leon Edwards 35:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:00 ... against Calvin Katter.

Leon Edwards 35:02 Um, I got a teammate that does it as well, Tom Breese.

Joe Rogan 35:05 Yeah?

Leon Edwards 35:05 He, he, he's the same way. He's, he-

Joe Rogan 35:06 Breese doesn't spar?

Leon Edwards 35:07 No.

Joe Rogan 35:08 Really?

Leon Edwards 35:08 He doesn't. Yeah. His last two, three fights he's, he's, he's ... Say he d- he d- he doesn't want to do it. Um-

Joe Rogan 35:14 That's interesting.

Leon Edwards 35:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so I think each, each to their own, right? Um-

Joe Rogan 35:18 How does he do it? Does he do drills where he just ... Like, simulations of-

Leon Edwards 35:23 Yeah. He'll, he'll like-

Joe Rogan 35:24 ... situations?

Leon Edwards 35:24 Yeah. He like situations or like play, play spar, you know.

Joe Rogan 35:28 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 35:29 Um, just like range find his shots really. He's not really getting't like hit properly, so. Um, for me, I, I prefer sparring. I spar twice a week, um, in camp.

Joe Rogan 35:39 Do you play, do you play spar? Like do you, do you touch light or do you blast? Like do you-

Leon Edwards 35:45 Um-

Joe Rogan 35:45 ... do you have like full, full power-

Leon Edwards 35:47 So-

Joe Rogan 35:47 ... sparring sessions?

Leon Edwards 35:48 So one ... In camp? So one, one, one spar a week will be big gloves, which is you can hit hard, you can go harder in big gloves. And then, um, on the Saturday it's little gloves, which is the, the bumper gloves, and that's more like play spar that normally end up in like a grappling match 'cause it's small gloves you're always ... It's hard to pull your shots right in small-

Joe Rogan 36:06 Right.

Leon Edwards 36:06 ... gloves. So, um, yeah. So it's like one hard on the Wednesday, then Saturday is more like a technical working through your techniques spar.

Joe Rogan 36:13 Yeah, because it's so interesting how the Thais do it, 'cause they fight so often that when-

Leon Edwards 36:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:17 ... they spar, they're just kind of-

Leon Edwards 36:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:18 ... touching each other and playing with each other. And it's interesting if you talk to guys like, you know, John Wayne Parr, guys who trained in Thailand.

Leon Edwards 36:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:25 He said there's a lot of wisdom to that, because when you spar hard, you don't try things.

Leon Edwards 36:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:31 You know, you don't ... You're, you're, you're always worried about the consequences.

Leon Edwards 36:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:35 But you can t- you can hone your fine reflexes by just light sparring, 'cause there, you don't worry about the consequences as much. And they're already tough. They already know how to fight.

Leon Edwards 36:44 Yes.

Joe Rogan 36:45 It gets ... There's so many different philosophies when it comes to sparring.

Leon Edwards 36:47 Yeah. It's so different, right? 'Cause Russians, Russians do the same thing with wrestling. They-

Joe Rogan 36:51 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 36:51 ... um, they're wrestling for like five hours (laughs) a day, but they just like drills, not like going hard, hard, hard, you know. They're more just like just drilling technique-

Joe Rogan 36:59 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 36:59 ... and just drill, play, play technique. You, they don't resist, you know. And, um, so if you add it up over the years, there're probably way more hours in the gym than what you're doing if you're going hard, hard, hard every day. So, I see ... Well, no, uh, I see where they're coming from, but I think it's different. I think you have to ... For me anyway.You have to get that, that, that hit, right, when someone is trying to, like, knock y- well, not trying to knock you out, but they- they're coming at you, um, full pace and you can get your reflex in, you're getting your shots in. I like to feel the shots before going into a fight, because if I- let's say I didn't spar for the whole camp, I'll be paranoid that I cannot still take a punch. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:33 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 37:33 You know? So I wanna feel that I can, you know? Uh, I think everyone is different.

Joe Rogan 37:38 How many years were you training before you had your first fight?

Leon Edwards 37:41 Um, I started an amateur fight, like, six months in.

Joe Rogan 37:45 Oh, wow.

Leon Edwards 37:45 And I won. I beat, like, a blue belt. It was like, um, it was like a, it was like a tour- my gym did, like, a tournament. It was like a in-house tournament. And I-

Joe Rogan 37:54 Like a smoker?

Leon Edwards 37:55 Yeah, yeah. Like, in-house tournament. And then some blue belt came, and then I did it and I won. I won the tournament after I trained for, like, six months. And that's, like, kept me, kept me in the gym, you know, and having, like, positive feedbacks from other coaches and shit. So, um, yeah, about six months in, had my first amateur fight.

Joe Rogan 38:10 So you just took to it? Like-

Leon Edwards 38:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:13 ... striking and martial arts, it seems like something that-

Leon Edwards 38:16 Normal. Normal.

Joe Rogan 38:17 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 38:17 I bet- 'Cause I was a good fighter anyway, uh, from, like, young on the street and in school and shit, so...

Joe Rogan 38:21 But you just didn't have any coaching at all? You just knew how to fight?

Leon Edwards 38:25 On the street?

Joe Rogan 38:26 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 38:26 Oh, yeah. Street, street fight is a street fight, right? Yes. (laughs) Um, um, heavy off, so, um, nah, no coaching. 'Til I was 17 then I started learning, um, what it was and that's it.

Joe Rogan 38:38 And did you stop street fighting when that happened?

Leon Edwards 38:40 Um, at the start no, but la- later on, yeah. 'Cause I never (laughs) been in a street fight now for a while. But, um, at the start you're kind of just, like, testing out your skill set. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 38:49 Oh, just to see? See how it works?

Leon Edwards 38:51 See if it- see how it works, you know? 'Cause people in the street really... Especially in the UK, they can't... They're not very good fighters, you know, and they kind of just swing wild and you end up in a tussle and that's it. But when you can pick your shots good and see openings, it's a different ballgame. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:05 Yeah, that's, uh, a terrifying thing if you don't know how to fight and you're talking shit-

Leon Edwards 39:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:08 ... and then you see a guy moving and you're like, "Oh, Christ." You know? (laughs)

Leon Edwards 39:12 (laughs) Shut up.

Joe Rogan 39:13 You see this so many YouTube videos of, like, two guys fighting and one guy is talking all kinds of shit and then he realizes, like, halfway in, "Oh, my God. This guy actually trains. He knows how to fight."

Leon Edwards 39:23 Yeah. Yeah, he... I think it's gonna be a bad, a bad night, right? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:26 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 39:27 I've been at before. You know, like, the bouncers or the doormen?

Joe Rogan 39:30 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 39:30 And, like, they're wearing, they're wearing, like, gum shields and-

Joe Rogan 39:32 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 39:32 But I've seen these guys in the gym, right, and they can't... They're not really... Th- they look tough but they can't fight, you know, and I've, I've brought them to the gym before and they're like, "Okay, you should spar this kid," that's, like, 17, he's, like, a little skinnier kid and the skinnier kid, like, beats them up, you know, and it, like, humbles them and- Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:47 It's just, it's a mad thing when you can fight. It gives you... I think it gives you confidence as well, to, to not fight when you, when you, when you do go out.

Leon Edwards 39:55 Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:55 You know? And, yeah, that's the reason I put my son, I put my son in it.

Leon Edwards 39:58 How old's your son now?

Joe Rogan 39:58 He's eight.

Leon Edwards 39:59 Eight, oh, that's a good age to start.

Joe Rogan 40:01 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leon Edwards 40:01 Exactly, so, um, I think it gives you the confidence to... You know, you know what you're about, "I need to go out there and be tough and, and, and prove it."

Joe Rogan 40:08 Right.

Leon Edwards 40:08 And, I think that's what martial arts did, did for me. It kind of calmed me down. I was, when I was younger and I was fighting, it's more just about proving yourself, right? So...

Joe Rogan 40:15 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 40:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:16 That, uh, l- uh, shit talking and things like-

Leon Edwards 40:20 Can I have a coffee?

Joe Rogan 40:20 Yeah, sure, brother, yeah.

Leon Edwards 40:21 Thank you, sorry.

Joe Rogan 40:24 If you want another one of those monsters, we got those too in the back.

Leon Edwards 40:26 All right, perfect.

Joe Rogan 40:28 Um, cheers.

Leon Edwards 40:29 Cheers. (glasses clinking) Good man.

Joe Rogan 40:31 I need some of this coffee after last night.

Leon Edwards 40:33 (laughs) It was a good night?

Joe Rogan 40:35 It was a lot of fun hanging out afterwards too. Chappelle and those fellas, they go hard like that every night. (laughs)

Leon Edwards 40:40 Do they?

Joe Rogan 40:41 They go every night. (laughs)

Leon Edwards 40:41 Oh, I was done after, like, two o'clock. It was like, "I got, I got to go. I got (laughs) to-"

Joe Rogan 40:45 Dave's got a philosophy behind it, though. It's actually well thought out. Like, he's like, the hang is important. He's like, "It's not just about doing shows." He's like, "The hang-"

Leon Edwards 40:54 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:54 "... actually makes you funnier and we talk about comedy during the hang, you know." It's always talking about jokes and talking about-

Leon Edwards 41:00 That's what I said to my coaches, um, this week, 'cause I was sitting down, I was like, "Okay, this is, this is like the, this is what we're gonna remember, right? The hanging around in, in, in the hotel." We don't really remember the fights when you're old. You just rem- You remember when you win or you lost, right? But what, what you remember is like the, the banter that you had with the coaches and-

Joe Rogan 41:20 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 41:21 That's, that's what I was telling my coaches last week, that we treasure these, these moments, you know? This is what we work for and just enjoy it and-

Joe Rogan 41:27 Camaraderie, yeah.

Leon Edwards 41:28 Yeah, man, the cama- Yeah, that, that, that's what it's all about.

Joe Rogan 41:30 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 41:30 That's what you're gonna remember when you're old.

Joe Rogan 41:32 Well, there's a similarity in the way fighters and comedians hang out with, is that y- not too many people understand you guys like you.

Leon Edwards 41:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:41 You know? Like, fighters and your, your coaches and your training partners and the people you work with, they know you.

Leon Edwards 41:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:48 They really... Regular people would never understand the amount of sacrifice and commitment and what it's like to go through hard sparring sessions, what it's like to go through hard strength and conditioning se-... Like, that, that you're always pushing yourself.

Leon Edwards 42:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:01 Constantly pushing yourself.

Leon Edwards 42:03 Every day.

Joe Rogan 42:03 They get it.

Leon Edwards 42:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:04 So it's, it's hard to relate, I'm sure, to other people.

Leon Edwards 42:08 Yeah, for sure. But to be fair, all my friends, they, they, they train as well, you know? So...

Joe Rogan 42:12 So all your friends train?

Leon Edwards 42:13 Yeah. Um, most of them train. Since I, since I got, got in it, they all kind of, like, went in, went in it as well.

Joe Rogan 42:19 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 42:19 Um, they don't compete, do, like, businesses and do, um, other shit. But, um, they, they train martial arts, bo- either boxing or strength and conditioning to do something, so they don't, they kind of understand it and they tell me shit I don't (laughs) I don't know about, about, about the-

Joe Rogan 42:32 Oh, really?

Leon Edwards 42:33 ... yeah, about fights. "You seen this fight?" I was like, "Nah, I don't, I don't watch it." 'Cause in the UK it's, like, 3:00 in the morning, but they stay up and watch it, you know? But I'm not staying up to watch, to watch them fights, it's like...

Joe Rogan 42:42 If you get... You know, there's so many different disciplines that you could follow.

Leon Edwards 42:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:46 If you start paying attention to Muay Thai or paying attention to boxing or, or jujitsu, it's like, you will not... There's not enough time.

Leon Edwards 42:54 Nah.

Joe Rogan 42:54 There's so many matches you could watch.

Leon Edwards 42:56 Yeah, it's t- it's too much. I like, I enjoy boxing. I love watching boxing.

Joe Rogan 42:59 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 42:59 Um, MMA, I watch MMA as well. But if I had to choose, I would like watching boxing.

Joe Rogan 43:06 Really?

Leon Edwards 43:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:07 Do you think you'll ever box? Do you think you-

Leon Edwards 43:08 Um...

Joe Rogan 43:09 Like, when you saw Conor fight Floyd.

Leon Edwards 43:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:12 Like, if an opportunity, something along those lines.

Leon Edwards 43:13 Yeah, for sure, 100%, I'll do that for sure. But I enjoy, I enjoy sparring boxes as well, you know? Um-... a lot... I like... I enjoy switching stances a lot and just... So, I'll probably box one day. I'd... I'd love to try it out, you know, 'cause I got good hands so we'll see.

Joe Rogan 43:27 But it's not, like-

Leon Edwards 43:29 Tsk. Nah, nah.

Joe Rogan 43:30 ... uh, not a-

Leon Edwards 43:30 Not a... Not now.

Joe Rogan 43:31 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 43:31 My goal now is to be a world ch- UFC world champion, right? After that, I'll probably look down that, um, that road. But once I achieve this goal, then I'll move on.

Joe Rogan 43:39 So, you were saying that you, uh, you don't have a head coach. So you just have head coaches in all these different disciplines.

Leon Edwards 43:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:45 But... So do you... Uh, do you have a strength and di- conditioning coach-

Leon Edwards 43:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:50 ... that you use?

Leon Edwards 43:50 Yeah, um, Jon, Johnny, um, um, Reynolds. He's... I've been working with him now for, (blows raspberry) about eight years, I think.

Joe Rogan 43:58 Oh, wow.

Leon Edwards 43:59 Yeah. Nah. Yeah, about eight years. Six to... Six to eight years. But before that though, I was working, working with his brother. His brother does, um, Anthony Joshua. Um, that's his head, um, head, um, strength and conditioning coach. Then went from his brother to Johnny. Now he's my strength condi- strength and conditioning coach, and we're working together now for... for a while.

Joe Rogan 44:15 And how many days a week do you do that?

Leon Edwards 44:17 Strength and conditioning? Um, two, three times a week. Uh, yeah, so it's Tuesday, Thursday, and then we pro- on Saturday, we would do hills or we do tracks or something. But yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:29 And do you schedule it so that you do that and then do you do it after you spar? Do you do it before? Like how do you... Do you do it on days where you don't spar? Like how do you-

Leon Edwards 44:38 Yeah, I don't... No, I don't... Yeah, days I don't spar. Say for... probably Tuesday morning. If I spar Wednesday, I'll... I do it Tuesday morning. Then I have like a light... a light, um, Tuesday night. Then I'll spar heavy, um, Wednesday. Then like, uh, pads Wednesday night. So I kinda like do it so it's like hard, medium hard. If you feel tired, I'm like good at... I'm good at listening to my body, right? So if I feel tired, I know I'm tired, I'll have a day off and... And that's... I mean, that's what it is. There are coaches sometimes... Like one head coach will be like, "No, you have to... You have to come training. Be tough. Do this, do that." You know? But I believe-

Joe Rogan 45:11 Right.

Leon Edwards 45:11 ... you should li- you should listen to your body. If you are tired that day, have a day off. You... I think it's more mental, right? Like everyone thinks, "Ah, I need to train and I need to do this." But you don't. If you're... If you're tired, you're gonna be way more better if you had like one or two days off and then come back and train and fight. So, um, I think it's more mental than anything.

Joe Rogan 45:27 So this is like trial and error? You've-

Leon Edwards 45:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:29 ... figured out you-

Leon Edwards 45:29 Yeah, I figured it out-

Joe Rogan 45:30 ... know your body well?

Leon Edwards 45:31 ... over the years. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:31 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 45:31 I figured it over the years and like I said, it's... I think it's mental 'cause for example, look at... especially with diet, look at Floyd Mayweather, right? I was watching, um, Countdown the other day. He's like having like McDonald's and shit.

Joe Rogan 45:40 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 45:41 I was like, "What the fuck?"

Joe Rogan 45:41 He eats a lot of McDonald's.

Leon Edwards 45:42 You know? It's like... Well, it's like-

Joe Rogan 45:44 I think he eats really good too though.

Leon Edwards 45:44 Yeah. No, I... I think so but-

Joe Rogan 45:46 It's... Part of that is like to show people-

Leon Edwards 45:48 Nah, no.

Joe Rogan 45:48 ... like, "I don't give a fuck."

Leon Edwards 45:49 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 45:49 "You're eating a cheeseburger and I'll still beat people's asses."

Leon Edwards 45:51 But some people will do that and like it will fuck them up mentally. Like, "Oh shit, I had a burger. I'm gonna lose the fight." I was like-

Joe Rogan 45:56 Right.

Leon Edwards 45:56 ... "You can't lose the fight, bro. Just chill, do your thing."

Joe Rogan 45:59 Yeah. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 46:00 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 46:00 Do you use anything to monitor your recovery? Like do you use a whoop strap or anything like that when you ch-

Leon Edwards 46:07 Um-

Joe Rogan 46:07 ... check your...

Leon Edwards 46:08 No, the... The... The PR gave me that ring, the, um-

Joe Rogan 46:10 Oh, an Oura Ring?

Leon Edwards 46:11 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:11 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 46:11 I tried it, but it's just hard to keep... remember to put it on and take it off and... Because if you're doing like, um, boxing or jiu-jitsu-

Joe Rogan 46:18 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 46:18 ... to leave it on is like-

Joe Rogan 46:19 No, you can't do that.

Leon Edwards 46:19 No. As long as my body-

Joe Rogan 46:20 Have you ever seen what happens to fingers?

Leon Edwards 46:21 No.

Joe Rogan 46:22 With... You know, that's why they developed those silicone rings when fingers get sheathed.

Leon Edwards 46:25 Oh.

Joe Rogan 46:25 Have you ever seen that?

Leon Edwards 46:26 No, no, no.

Joe Rogan 46:27 Google that.

Leon Edwards 46:28 Oh, ƒ (00:04:29) .

Joe Rogan 46:29 It is horrific. Wedding rings, what happens is they dig into your, uh, the meat of your finger and it pulls the finger meat and the muscle-

Leon Edwards 46:37 What the...

Joe Rogan 46:37 ... completely off 'cause the metal from the ring... Like if you're in a bad situ-

Leon Edwards 46:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:41 I... I know guys who've happened-

Leon Edwards 46:43 And it came off? The skin came off?

Joe Rogan 46:44 It's happened. Oh yeah, terrible. They... I know guys who've had it happen in rolling where like say the ring will get pinned like this-

Leon Edwards 46:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:50 ... and it'll just pull back the meat.

Leon Edwards 46:52 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 46:53 Google. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 46:55 Ugh. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 46:55 You should show it. People should see it because I know... I know guys who roll with wedding rings on and, uh, I've seen them do it and I'm like, "Hey man, take that fucking thing off."

Leon Edwards 47:04 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 47:04 "Oh, my wife, she doesn't want-" I'm like, "Listen to me, bitch."

Leon Edwards 47:07 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:07 "You're gonna-"

Leon Edwards 47:07 Take that shit home.

Joe Rogan 47:08 "You're gonna lose your finger." Like you... You will lose your finger. Like it's possible to lose-

Narrator 47:12 I was gonna show you.

Joe Rogan 47:13 ... use of your finger.

Narrator 47:14 I'll show you what I'm looking at 'cause I don't wanna look at it for a long time.

Joe Rogan 47:16 Okay. Just bust it out there.

Narrator 47:20 Uh, let me think. Hopefully-

Joe Rogan 47:20 Wedding ring.

Narrator 47:21 ... not a good one.

Joe Rogan 47:22 Did you Google wedding ring sheathing?

Narrator 47:24 Yeah, finger sheathing injuries.

Joe Rogan 47:25 Yeah, from wedding rings?

Narrator 47:27 Um, it's not here. I'm not sure I can find one.

Joe Rogan 47:27 There's some horrible ones, man. I don't see any of these-

Narrator 47:31 I know.

Joe Rogan 47:31 ... Are these wedding ring ones?

Narrator 47:33 I don't know why.

Joe Rogan 47:33 Did you put... B- go... Pull up a wedding ring.

Narrator 47:36 Well, I mean...

Joe Rogan 47:37 Wedding ring finger sheath. There you go.

Leon Edwards 47:41 Oh.

Joe Rogan 47:42 There you go. That's what I'm talking about. Look at that.

Leon Edwards 47:44 Shit.

Joe Rogan 47:44 Click on that one.

Narrator 47:46 God.

Joe Rogan 47:46 That's what happens.

Leon Edwards 47:47 Oh, shit.

Joe Rogan 47:48 Like literally it pulled the guy's fucking finger off. The wedding r- ring digs into your hand. It dings... it digs into the-

Leon Edwards 47:55 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 47:55 ... the meat of the hand and it just tears it right off. You gotta be real careful with those things. That's why they invented like, uh... Michael Chandler has a company. Um... Jesus Christ, why can't I remember the name? The r- his ring company. They make the best ones. What is his company?

Narrator 48:10 Oh.

Leon Edwards 48:10 Can I have a Monster? Sorry.

Joe Rogan 48:11 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Narrator 48:11 It's also called a ring avulsion. Sorry, I was looking at nasty-

Joe Rogan 48:15 What is Chandler's, uh, company called? 'Cause he has, uh, the best ones.

Leon Edwards 48:21 What? To do with rings?

Joe Rogan 48:22 Yeah.

Narrator 48:22 Groove Life.

Joe Rogan 48:23 Groove Life. That's the thing. And they make great belts too, but they make a... they make a silicone like wedding ring that just-

Leon Edwards 48:30 It... Can I?

Joe Rogan 48:30 Yeah. It... It won't fuck your finger up. So you can do that.

Leon Edwards 48:32 What, do you just take your ring off when you train and put it back on?

Joe Rogan 48:34 Yeah, yeah, you should. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 48:36 The fuck? (laughs)

Narrator 48:38 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:38 (laughs)

Leon Edwards 48:38 Crazy rings and shit.

Narrator 48:39 I... It happened to Jimmy Fallon a couple years ago. He was like f-... and cooking something, like he slipped and fell and went to grab, you know, I don't know, like the island in the kitchen-

Joe Rogan 48:46 Oh, really?

Narrator 48:47 ... and it caught on that.

Leon Edwards 48:47 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 48:47 Oh.

Narrator 48:47 It sheathed his finger?

Leon Edwards 48:48 Ugh.

Narrator 48:48 It happened to many people doing it, random things like that.

Joe Rogan 48:50 That's why Groove Life, I think, invented those. I think it was a... a l- a... I believe the story was it w- it was an Alaskan, uh, hunting guide that figured it out and he- he's the guy that, that invented that, uh, that specific type of ring. Um, can you tell Jeff to bring a Monster in for the gentleman?

Narrator 49:07 Oh, sure. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:07 And tell him to, uh, get me one of them... Or just bring some of those KillClips too.

Narrator 49:11 Oh, I'll just grab one real quick.

Joe Rogan 49:11 Okay, thanks.

Leon Edwards 49:12 Yeah, his coffee was drama in my face. It's from-

Joe Rogan 49:14 Yeah, yeah.

Narrator 49:14 Last night.

Leon Edwards 49:15 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:16 No, I hear you. Yeah. I'm telling you, those guys do that every night. I don't know how they do it. And then they got the 'rona and didn't even get sick.

Leon Edwards 49:23 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 49:23 It's crazy. Both of them, Donnell Rawlings and Dave Chappelle both got the 'rona and had nothing.... just-

Leon Edwards 49:29 Over in, like-

Joe Rogan 49:29 ... nothing.

Leon Edwards 49:30 ... days?

Joe Rogan 49:30 They were just, they just quarantined in their hotel room. I said, "No symptoms?" "No symptoms." Nothing.

Leon Edwards 49:34 Shake it up. Oh, fuck.

Joe Rogan 49:35 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 49:35 Now, I've done ... I, I did it in December, and I lost, like, 6 KGs. I don't know what's that in pounds. Um, I'd lost my, my smell, my taste. I d- I had, like, two weeks off 'cause that's what you're meant to do, and went back to training. And, um, my, my body just felt weak, you know. I was like, I had to pull out of the fight. So, I had it bad.

Joe Rogan 49:51 That's ... Was that a situation where you were training hard and so your immune system was kinda broken down, and then you caught it?

Leon Edwards 49:57 Yeah, yeah. I, I believe so 'cause that's, like, um, yeah, I, I think that, I think that, that's what it was. I was working so hard in camp and then your body just, just sh- just shut, shut down, right?

Joe Rogan 50:06 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 50:06 And then, when you try, you had two weeks off-

Joe Rogan 50:11 Thank you.

Leon Edwards 50:11 (clears throat) Thank you.

Joe Rogan 50:12 You can have one of those. You got Monsters. Whatever you want, man.

Leon Edwards 50:13 All right, thank you. Yeah, when you, when you had, like, two weeks off and try to go back at the same intensity that you was-

Joe Rogan 50:19 Mm-hmm.

Leon Edwards 50:19 ... two weeks ago, you just can't do it.

Joe Rogan 50:20 Right.

Leon Edwards 50:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:21 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 50:21 So I had to pull out. (can tab pops)

Joe Rogan 50:23 That Khamzat picture of his sink-

Leon Edwards 50:27 Yeah, baby.

Joe Rogan 50:27 ... where he coughed up blood in the sink is fucking crazy. But apparently, he has, um, he's had lung issues before. He's had, um, some sort of a lung issue in the past. You know, um, (smacks lips) what is that called when ... Not pneumonia, but, uh, something that a lot of people get that, uh ... Goddammit, I'm trying to remember that. It's a very common disease that people get with, uh, with coughing and-

Narrator 50:54 Bronchitis?

Joe Rogan 50:54 Maybe that's it. I think it is. I think that is it. I think it's bronchitis. I think Khamzat has, uh, bronchitis too. So that on top of-

Leon Edwards 51:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:03 ... getting corona.

Leon Edwards 51:04 Fucked him up.

Joe Rogan 51:04 Fucked him up pretty bad.

Leon Edwards 51:05 Is he, is he recovering good? Yeah, yeah, yeah? They hurting him?

Joe Rogan 51:07 He said he was gonna retire.

Leon Edwards 51:08 I was thinking that, but Dana's like-

Joe Rogan 51:09 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 51:09 ... "No, son." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 51:11 I know Dana said no-

Leon Edwards 51:12 You ain't going nowhere, boy.

Joe Rogan 51:13 ... but-

Leon Edwards 51:13 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 51:13 It's hard. Like, Dana doesn't want anybody to retire, which is kinda crazy. Like, he's, he's still letting, uh, Khabib hold onto the belt.

Leon Edwards 51:19 Yeah, I know.

Joe Rogan 51:20 But, you know, Khabib has ... He's got his own life, man.

Leon Edwards 51:23 Yeah, bro.

Joe Rogan 51:23 You can't tell him, you know-

Leon Edwards 51:25 I think he's gonna come back, though.

Joe Rogan 51:26 Do you think so?

Leon Edwards 51:27 Yeah, I think so.

Joe Rogan 51:28 Why?

Leon Edwards 51:28 I don't know. He just, I think he's, he's always training, he's always around the fights. If ... I think once he has some time off, I think he's gonna come back. You know?

Joe Rogan 51:35 I think they should set up Khabib versus GSP.

Leon Edwards 51:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:38 'Cause GSP wants another fight.

Leon Edwards 51:40 That would be good.

Joe Rogan 51:41 And I think he can make 55.

Leon Edwards 51:44 Nah.

Joe Rogan 51:44 I, I think he can make it.

Leon Edwards 51:45 You think?

Joe Rogan 51:46 Yeah, he said, he said he can make it. Yeah.

Leon Edwards 51:47 They should, they should, uh, definitely do it. For, you know, it would be perfect, right?

Joe Rogan 51:51 I don't care.

Leon Edwards 51:52 If it was, if that was me, I wouldn't wanna go out at 29. "Oh, I have to get out at 30, man." Be like, "I'm coming back-"

Joe Rogan 51:55 Just to get even?

Leon Edwards 51:56 "... just to get that through." Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:57 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 51:58 It would, it would, it would be annoying.

Joe Rogan 51:59 Well, I just, I think, you know, he made a promise to his mother, and after-

Leon Edwards 52:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:04 ... his father died. I just don't think he's gonna come. I could be wrong, but I think, I think-

Leon Edwards 52:10 How long you think they should leave it for to just strip him?

Joe Rogan 52:13 Not much longer, you know.

Leon Edwards 52:14 How long has it been now? When did, when did the fight? Last-

Joe Rogan 52:17 Well, he fought Justin. It was during the, the COVID, right? 'Cause they fought in Abu Dhabi with no audience.

Leon Edwards 52:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:24 I think that was six months ago, maybe, something like that.

Leon Edwards 52:30 Yeah, probably give him, probably give him a little bit longer, probably, 'cause he's been so dominant.

Joe Rogan 52:33 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 52:33 I feel you should give him just a little bit longer just to see, see what he's gonna do.

Joe Rogan 52:37 Yeah. I mean, un- unless he says, "I'm done."

Leon Edwards 52:41 I know. Leave me alone now.

Joe Rogan 52:42 You know? Well, look at what they did with Jon Jones, you know? They just basically stripped Jon Jones.

Leon Edwards 52:46 Yeah, straightaway.

Joe Rogan 52:46 He said, "I'm gonna go up to heavyweight." And they said, "Okay." And that's it, he abandoned the belt. N- n- and then they stripped him right away. I mean, he easily could've held onto that belt-

Leon Edwards 52:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:55 ... while trying to-

Leon Edwards 52:56 Yeah, for sure.

Joe Rogan 52:57 ... try a fight or two at heavyweight.

Leon Edwards 52:59 Who, who's gonna fight for the lightweight, lightweight belt if they do strip him?

Joe Rogan 53:01 The light heavyweight belt?

Leon Edwards 53:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:03 Oh, the lightweight belt.

Leon Edwards 53:04 Lightweight.

Joe Rogan 53:04 That's interesting, right? I don't know. I don't know.

Leon Edwards 53:07 Oliveira?

Joe Rogan 53:07 I think Oliveira should be fighting for the title, but I think Dustin Poirier-

Leon Edwards 53:12 That's a good ...

Joe Rogan 53:12 ... should be fighting for the title too, and then they're gonna have Dustin versus Conor again.

Leon Edwards 53:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:15 That's the plan.

Leon Edwards 53:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:16 That doesn't make sense for the title, not while Oliveira's around.

Leon Edwards 53:20 Nah.

Joe Rogan 53:20 I think Oliveira's supposed to be-

Leon Edwards 53:21 Yeah, for sure.

Joe Rogan 53:22 He's a beast, man. That kid is so impressive. And he's a guy that has had, you know, these ups and downs in his career where he's lost and he's come back, and he's lost and he's come back. And, and you see where he's at now. I mean, he's on a-

Leon Edwards 53:35 Yeah, his skill set-wise is, he's up there.

Joe Rogan 53:37 He's on another level than he's ever been before. The Tony fight with Ferguson-

Leon Edwards 53:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:41 ... I was super impressed.

Leon Edwards 53:43 Yeah. He's, he's good. Um, I think skill set-wise, I think he's, for me, uh, I think he's at number one probably, for skill set.

Joe Rogan 53:51 You think so?

Leon Edwards 53:51 Yeah. Uh, uh, him, Cha-

Joe Rogan 53:53 Very clean, right?

Leon Edwards 53:54 Yeah, him, Chandler, um, Dustin, Conor. Who else is there in the f- uh, what other-

Joe Rogan 53:59 Uh, who else?

Leon Edwards 54:00 ... is ... You know.

Joe Rogan 54:00 Option.

Leon Edwards 54:01 There's a lot of people in that division. It's a great division. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:04 It's, I mean, it's packed. But it's like-

Leon Edwards 54:07 I don't think they can give Chandler the, the, the shot at the belt right away.

Joe Rogan 54:09 Not right away.

Leon Edwards 54:09 Not right away.

Joe Rogan 54:10 I mean, he had a, that super impressive knockout of Hooker-

Leon Edwards 54:13 Yeah, which is good.

Joe Rogan 54:14 ... which puts him in the top 10 and makes a big deal, but-

Leon Edwards 54:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:16 ... maybe one more.

Leon Edwards 54:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:17 You know, at least, 'cause how many people have been in, in the division for so long-

Leon Edwards 54:21 Yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 54:21 ... racking up wins? They'll be furious.

Leon Edwards 54:23 Yeah, so pissed. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 54:24 You know?

Leon Edwards 54:26 Nah, for Robo. Um, yeah, I think give, uh, I think Oliviera and Dustin should fight for the belt, you know? And then after that-

Joe Rogan 54:34 I agree.

Leon Edwards 54:34 ... let Chandler fight ... Mm, I don't know.

Joe Rogan 54:38 I think Oliveira and Dustin, but, uh, you know, it doesn't matter what I think because they're gonna have Conor versus Dustin again-

Leon Edwards 54:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:43 ... 'cause that's where the money's at.

Leon Edwards 54:44 Yeah, for the dough. Is that right?

Joe Rogan 54:45 That's gonna be crazy. They're gonna do that in front of a live audience? That's gonna be nuts.

Leon Edwards 54:48 Who do you, who do you think wins that one?

Joe Rogan 54:51 Who knows? I mean-

Leon Edwards 54:52 Co- Con- Conor was catching some good shots-

Joe Rogan 54:53 Yes.

Leon Edwards 54:53 ... you know, just the leg kick sh- shut him down. But, um, yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:58 It's gonna be hard, you know. It's gonna be hard to figure out because Conor did hurt him. He did rock him. Uh, Dustin admitted it. He said in the first round, he said he rang his bell.

Leon Edwards 55:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:07 But ultimately, Dustin won. So you gotta think he can win again. And I don't know ... Conor never switches stances either. It's very rare. He doesn't, doesn't box-

Leon Edwards 55:18 No.

Joe Rogan 55:18 ... doesn't like ... His power hand is for sure his left hand.

Leon Edwards 55:20 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:21 So he likes to keep it spinning.

Leon Edwards 55:21 And if he switches, he's gonna spin.

Joe Rogan 55:22 Yeah. Right, right, right.

Leon Edwards 55:23 And he switches, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it'd be a, it would be entertaining fight. If I put money on it, I'd probably go ...If Conner can do it again, if, if he just fixed up his, his stance a little bit. Co- earli- earlier in his career he, he was a bit more elusive, right? But now he's just, like, heavy, heavy on his legs, so I think Conor can do it if, if they fight again.

Joe Rogan 55:43 I'm sure he'll make an adjustment.

Leon Edwards 55:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:45 The, the, the, well, (laughs) it's just crazy seeing a guy pull up in a yacht, you know? (laughs)

Leon Edwards 55:51 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 55:51 To a big fight and he's doing shadowboxing on a yacht and meditating on the yacht, it's like, wow. Like, to-

Leon Edwards 55:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:58 ... if he did win that way, that's, like, the most baller shit ever.

Leon Edwards 56:02 Yeah, no, I couldn't do that. Uh, in fight week I'd have to be, like, zoned in, right? I couldn't be s- being on yachts and I'd have to be, like, isolation, like, with, in my room, my coaches, chilling, talking. I couldn't do it. That's, I think there's too much to do, as well, right? You gotta focus on your job at hand is, is to perform, so, um-

Joe Rogan 56:19 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 56:19 ... if he did do it, though, it'd be, it'd be cool, but (laughs) -

Joe Rogan 56:21 Did you go through a bunch of different processes to get to where you're at now where you know exactly what to do, like, the week of the fight, you know, you know what's best for your mind, you know what's best-

Leon Edwards 56:33 Yeah. I-

Joe Rogan 56:34 Do you tr- would you try to distract yourself? What do you try to do?

Leon Edwards 56:36 I try, fight week I try trea- uh, treat it like another week, right? 'Cause I think if you build it up to be something that it's not re- that's normally what happens, right? 'Cause you sit in your room, you're kinda, like, overthinking the fight, what's gonna happen, and it never does. And the, the more I compete, the more I fight, I think, you just think crazy shit (laughs) in your head, what's gonna happen in the fight, and it never plays out that way. So I learned to be like, you know what? Just treat it like another week, you know what I mean? Leave, eat what you normally eat, obviously you gotta cut weight, but on fight day I eat what, what I would eat on a sparring day. I was eating, like, normal, chicken, rice, fish, eat light, I don't really eat heavy on, on, um, sparring day. And, um, I like to go for walks, I go for, like, a long walk fight day with my team, just, like-

Joe Rogan 57:19 On fight day?

Leon Edwards 57:19 Yeah, yeah. I like, that's, I like to go for, like, a long walk just to, like, banter with my team, and just make it feel like a normal day. I don't want to build it up to be something that it's not, and it's n- 'cause I do this every single day, you know? And, um, if you do it that way I think you have better success than, than, like, just sitting in your room thinking, "Oh, it's gonna be a ..." It's like-

Joe Rogan 57:38 Right.

Leon Edwards 57:38 ... playing a match game in your head.

Joe Rogan 57:40 Right. Um, when, when you say you go for a walk, like, do you find that that, like, relieves, uh, nervous energy? Like, why do you like to-

Leon Edwards 57:48 Um, I don't know.

Joe Rogan 57:49 ... to go for a walk?

Leon Edwards 57:49 I just, I always enjoyed on fight day going for, like, a long walk. Uh, I don't, I don't, I don't know what it is. It's, um, I don't know, I don't know. Like, I can't put, like, a finger on it to say, "This is why I do it." You know? I just, I just like to go for a long walk, stretch my legs out, um, have a little banter with the team, just chill, t- treat it like another day, like, like I'm back at home in my gym and I'm on the way to the gym. Um, that's it. You know, it's not really ... I can't, I can't think why I do it, but that's what I like to do.

Joe Rogan 58:15 You just always liked to do it?

Leon Edwards 58:15 Yeah, I just always liked to do it.

Joe Rogan 58:16 Do you meditate at all?

Leon Edwards 58:18 No.

Joe Rogan 58:18 Nothing?

Leon Edwards 58:19 (laughs) No. Nah, nothing. Um, nah, nothing. I just, I, I don't know, my mental strength, I don't know, I don't know where I got it from, but I'm, like, mentally I'm, like, quite solid, right? But I think it's just from, like, my upbringing and the, my trials and tribulations that I've been through in life, and it's kind of just made me who I am, right? I know that I can get over struggle, I know I've been there before, I've done it before, I can get over it. And I think the more you struggle y- you get more armor, you're more solid, right? And I think that's what-

Joe Rogan 58:46 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 58:46 ... that's what it is, just build me up to be who I am.

Joe Rogan 58:48 Yeah, it's, uh, there's an interesting mindset that comes from people that have been through really tough things in their life. You know, like, uh, I spoke with, uh, Francis Ngannou.

Leon Edwards 59:00 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 59:00 And he was talking about his journey-

Leon Edwards 59:01 I seen that, yeah. Yeah, it's fucking crazy.

Joe Rogan 59:04 Fucking crazy.

Leon Edwards 59:04 Mad.

Joe Rogan 59:05 Like, you think about that guy, 14 months to get out of Cameroon and to get all the way to Spain only to spend two months in prison.

Leon Edwards 59:13 And just throw, throwing his money and shit.

Joe Rogan 59:15 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 59:15 That, I was like, "What?" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 59:17 Crazy. All of it was crazy. The, the whole story's crazy. Like, that guy's been through so much that to fight for him is probably a relief.

Leon Edwards 59:24 Well, yeah, it is what it is.

Joe Rogan 59:25 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 59:25 Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, like, I've been through, through so much that a fight, like, a fistfight, it's just, like, it's a fistfight, right?

Joe Rogan 59:31 What's-

Leon Edwards 59:32 Not, you're not, you're not gonna die. You, like-

Joe Rogan 59:33 What's the worst shit that you've been through?

Leon Edwards 59:35 Um, worst? I don't know. I c- I don't know, like, one worst thing, you know? Just, like, the duration of life, you know? I don't think there's, like, one thing that this is the worst thing I've been through. But I've, I've been through, um, a lot, you know? Um-

Joe Rogan 59:50 Like what kind of shit?

Leon Edwards 59:51 Um, mm, I don't know, I don't know. It's hard to put a finger on it. (laughs) Like, I don't know, just, like, struggles in life. Yeah, yeah. Just I'm b- I was, I was born in Jamaica, obviously. Um, came to the UK when I was 10, 11. Um, my dad was in, was a basically gang leader, basically.

Joe Rogan 1:00:12 Oh, really?

Leon Edwards 1:00:12 Yeah, in Jamaica. So basically in Jamaica it's, like, um, streets, right? We call it lanes, but it's, like, streets. But it was, like, um, where one street fight with, like, the n- ne- the other street down, like, three streets down the road. Um, in my area, my dad was, like, the leader of the gang, right? So he came to the UK, um, before us. He was, like, he was, like, sell drugs and wait, whatever he did to bring back money back into the community to buy guns and do what they, do what he does, you know? And, um, I came from that, then from there he ca- he brought me, my brother, um, and my mom to the UK, um, to obviously for safety, obviously. And then both in Birmingham. And then he passed away when I was 13, 13 years old. So I was in, I was in the UK for about two to three years, then he died when I was 13. And then-

Joe Rogan 1:01:02 How did he pass away?

Leon Edwards 1:01:03 Um, got shot, got killed in, um, in London. Um, when I got a phone call I was, like, 13 years old and (laughs) I remember, like, being, being in bed, right? And my mom got a phone call at 2:00 in the morning. And so I heard the phone ringing and she's like, uh, I heard her crying, right? I was like, "Oh, shit." So I was like, she woke, she woke me up said, "Your dad, um, just got killed in, um, in London." Well, it's like a weird feeling, right? 'Cause I've seen, since, since I, I knew my dad he's, he's always been the same person, right? He's always-... been in, in that life, you know. So, um, I wouldn't say I s- I expected it, but it, it wasn't like a shock, right? Because I knew what he did. I know that's life. That's the life, right?

Joe Rogan 1:01:51 Yeah.

Leon Edwards 1:01:51 You know, and, um, so it was, uh, it, it was mad. It was mad.

Joe Rogan 1:01:56 What is it like growing up when your father is running a gang? It's gotta be fucking crazy. Like, just-

Leon Edwards 1:02:04 Um.

Joe Rogan 1:02:04 ... knowing-

Leon Edwards 1:02:06 As a kid, it's like, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:02:08 Did it feel normal because you-

Leon Edwards 1:02:09 Yeah, I s-

Joe Rogan 1:02:09 ... that's all you knew?

Leon Edwards 1:02:10 Yeah. It's just normal, right? Everyone... (clicks tongue) I, I, it's fucked up because I liked it as a, when I, when I was a kid, right? Because I had all, like, the latest shit 'cause he, he was like sending shit from the UK and like, having like a bi- I'm, I'm like a bicycle when it's in Jamaica and like a remote control car as a kid. That was a big deal, you know, and I, I had all,