Din Thomas: Leon Edwards is 'not a true fighter at heart' after UFC London loss
03/27/2025 04:00 PM
Din Thomas doesn't think Leon Edwards has the heart of a fighter.
This past Saturday, Edwards faced off with Sean Brady in the main event of UFC London where things went horribly for the former champion. Brady dominated "Rocky" for most of the fight and then became the first man to finish Edwards, submitting him with a mounted guillotine choke in the fourth round. But Thomas, who was in the corner for Brady on Saturday, knew the fight was over long before the tap. He says it was over the moment Edwards shot for a takedown in the third round.
"When he did that, I got quiet and I looked at John Marquez, the head coach, and said, 'Did he just try to take Sean down?'" Thomas said on Anthony Smith's podcast. "And then when he got reversed, John was like, 'Man, we could just play checkers and we could literally play chess right now because we don't need to do anything.' We just knew at that point, the fight was over. When Leon shot that takedown, he showed his hand that he did not want to be there anymore and that was a wrap. I couldn't believe it."
It was a devastating loss for Edwards who is now on the first losing streak of his career and well outside the title conversation. Perhaps even worse is how those two losses have looked. Thomas says Edwards's losing streak revealed a harsh reality for the former champion: he doesn't have the heart for this.
"I don't want this to be disrespectful toward Leon, because I still believe that skill for skill, his body type and all that, that he was a great champion," Thomas said. "He's a great fighter. He's still top-five material. But I just don't think that Leon is, in his heart, a real true fighter.
"And I say that in terms of Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier. These guys will fight you in a parking lot. I think he's an athlete and I think he's a performer. I think he's creative. I think in the gym, he probably eats up everybody in the gym. Super magical. I just think when the lights come on and it's time for him to really fight — despite not being a true fighter, he was still that good. He was still that good and still able to beat everybody."
It's a harsh assessment from Thomas, but not the first time he's levied it at Edwards. In Edwards' second fight with Kamaru Usman, Thomas was on the UFC broadcast and noted that Edwards appeared mentally defeated, shortly before Edwards scored a miraculous last-minute comeback knockout. There was no such comeback for Edwards this time out, and with a growing sample size, Thomas believes that even Edwards's team knows he's speaking the truth.
"I think they even recognize that Leon at times is not a true fighter at heart," Thomas said. "And they want him to be, that's why they're protective of him. That's why the coach is like, "Come on, son! Don't let him bully you!' Because they know that if he had a little bit more grit in him and had the ability to chew iron, that he would probably still be world champ. ...
"And to be fair, I didn't have it either. This is how I know what it looks like because I didn't have it either. When things got hard for me, I resorted to pulling guard, too. I resorted to shooting takedowns and pulling guard, so I know what it looks like."
