On a monumental night for UK MMA, one fight is in danger of flying under the radar. This match-up between two of the most technical strikers in the welterweight division is an excellent way to kick off the televised prelims, and will hopefully set the tone for what should be a memorable night.
Leon Edwards fights out of the illustrious Ultimate Training Centre in Birmingham and is one of the best home-grown British prospects in the sport. Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, the 25-year-old started off his martial arts career as a kickboxer and transitioned to MMA at the age of 19. His pedigree as a striker is clearly visible in his style, displaying a loose and technical approach to fighting on the feet. This attitude has served him well in his relatively short UFC career, in which he has achieved a record of 3-2 including a stunning eight-second knockout of Seth Baczynski back in April of last year.
However, he’ll most definitely have his work cut out for him at UFC 204. Albert Tumenov is one of the most fearsome up-and-comers in the UFC’s welterweight division, having been on a five-fight winning streak over the course of eighteen months until he was submitted by BJJ phenom Gunnar Nelson back in May. Tumenov is a National Master of Sports in both boxing and hand-to-hand combat in his native Russia, having been trained since childhood by his father along with his brother, who is a world amateur boxing champion.
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Tumenov has displayed particularly devastating finishing power during his UFC run so far, most visibly so against Alan Jouban back in 2015 when he rattled him with a lighting fast head kick followed by a barrage of punches which completely switched off his brain. When Tumenov gets going, he is genuinely one of the scariest strikers in the organisation. His incredibly crisp boxing technique is a joy to watch and unlike many great boxers that we’ve seen compete in MMA over the years, his hands don’t exist in a vacuum. By this I mean that he marries his tight hand combinations with kicks in a fluid and confident manner, exhibiting a smoothness that only comes with a lifetime of martial arts training.
Yet as I mentioned previously, he has to get going first. Leon is an elusive, patient striker with the ability to charm an angry snake like Tumenov. We know that this is a viable game-plan as we saw it implemented by Gunnar Nelson and, to a lesser extent, Lorenz Larkin. For the periods of the fight that took place on the feet, Gunnar Nelson played the role of the lengthy southpaw – showing patience while leaping in and out of range to land shots. Lorenz Larkin also managed to land consistently despite Tumenov’s consistent pressure, pounding his lead leg and also threatening with multiple spinning kicks. Being a southpaw himself, Leon may be likely to implement a similar tactic to Gunnar in keeping his distance and choosing his times to attack very carefully. Attempting exchanges with Tumenov never usually ends well for anybody, which is why Gunnar wisely chose to take the path of least resistance and impose his superior grappling. In all likelihood this isn’t as much of an option for Leon whose grappling skills are certainly decent but may not be enough to threaten the likes of Tumenov – who is notoriously difficult to put on the mat. This means that Leon will most likely try to solve this puzzle on the feet with his tricky southpaw approach, an eventuality which by nature has its advantages and disadvantages.
As a southpaw, he’ll be much more susceptible to the same hard right body and head kicks that Tumenov delivered to an ill-fated Alan Jouban. However, Jouban made the mistake of trying to trade with the dangerous Russian – Leon is a much more careful striker and is less likely to still be in the pocket when Tumenov launches one of his savage combinations. Also, being a southpaw will certainly come in handy in the sense that it leaves Leon much less susceptible to the exceptional left hooks to the liver that Tumenov throws so effectively, due to the fact that his stance will present his liver on the opposite side. The mirrored stances that we will see when the first round commences on Saturday will shape the nature of the whole fight, and it is my belief that we’ll see a lot more action in terms of both fighters trading kicks on the outside as opposed to boxing at close range.
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An area in which these mirrored stances may make it difficult for Edwards is in the leg kicking. Tumenov’s front leg may have taken a battering in his contestable split decision victory against Larkin, but Larkin is an exceptionally fast kicker and is also an orthodox fighter meaning that Tumenov’s leg was in range for a conventional outside leg kick – and still Tumenov was able to check many of these kicks. Leon isn’t known so much for his leg kicking ability and the mirrored stances mean that Leon’s leg has much farther to travel in order to reach its target on the inside of the leg, giving Tumenov ample time to land one of his crisp straight right counters. I believe that Leon will opt to aim to target the head with his rear left leg, a favoured strike of his that caused Pawel Pawlak to drop like a sack of spuds back in July of last year. He’ll have to fake his opponent out and spot an opening when Tumenov marches forward with a boxing combination.
Edwards has an excellent stable of coaches from UTC who can always be heard giving sound, calm advice from the corner which obviously goes a long way to fostering a great dynamic in which Leon is able to thrive. He’ll have to put on the best performance of his career in order to beat this formidable Russian, but if you were to tailor make a striker who could beat Tumenov – Leon Edwards might just be it.
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LUKE HENAGHAN
FEATURE WRITER
A nocturnal troglodyte that only ventures out of his cave in Leeds for Domino’s pizza or Budweiser. Do not be fooled though, as despite his troll-like nature Luke is quite the wordsmith and possess excellent leg-kicks.