“My thing is to prove to underprivileged kids that they can be whatever they want to be in life and they don’t have to finish where they started,” Edwards told me before his 2019 bout against Rafael Dos Anjos. “That’s how I want to impact the world. I came from nothing and I want to prove to kids that are in the same position that I was in as a kid that you can come from nothing and still be on top of the world and be whatever you want to be in life. The journey don’t have to end at where you started. You don’t have to follow in your parents’ or family’s footsteps; you can change your family’s future and be whatever you want to be in life if you work hard at it.”
Edwards worked harder than most, but sometimes hard work in the gym and Octagon didn’t translate to the success he wanted. He doesn’t talk trash, he doesn’t post on social media more than spend time on his craft, and he wasn’t jumping off the side of the cage with kicks or throwing spinning moves on fight night. He’s an honest man and an honest fighter. I think we call guys like that “workmanlike.” Some would consider that an insult; others wear it as a badge of honor.
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“At one point it did bother me,” Edwards told me of not getting the recognition he deserved. “But now, I trust in my journey, and maybe that wasn’t my journey. This is the path I’m on, this is the path I chose for myself, this is what I’m doing, and I don’t feel I need to do what people want me to do. As long as they pay me my check, that’s all that matters. I’m in it to create wealth for my family and change my family’s future and that’s that. Whether you love me or hate me, that’s none of my business. I focus on competing, I focus on being one of the best in the world and focus on getting paid, and that’s it.”
And, as in any sport, if you keep winning long enough, you can’t be ignored. So from the time of his loss to Usman, Edwards just kept winning, fight after fight after fight. On Saturday, he got his shot, but outside of a good first round, it appeared that the long road to the title was going to end in Salt Lake City, Utah, a place Edwards didn’t even know of before he signed a contract to fight there.
