Matt Brown sympathizes with Leon Edwards’ struggles against Belal Muhammad but ‘when you speak it out loud, it’s an excuse’
Leon Edwards knows he wasn’t at his best when he lost his UFC welterweight title to Belal Muhammad this past July.
The now former champion, and his head coach Dave Lovell, have both spoken out about the conditions surrounding that fight, primarily the incredibly odd timing with the main event walking to the octagon at around 5 a.m. local time. Edwards claimed his reactions were “slow”, and Lovell went as far as saying that he only saw “30 to 40 percent” of his fighter that night.
Retired UFC welterweight Matt Brown sympathizes with all the struggles Edwards faced that night, because he dealt with any number of issues that played a part in some of his toughest losses. The problem is airing those grievances after the fact just isn’t a good look.
“I understand where Leon’s coming from, especially being in his home country,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “He’s certainly accustomed to a certain rhythm, a routine of sleeping and waking. Belal coming from another country, there’s some excitement and everything’s new. The time zone is new. You’re going to be adjusting to the time zone regardless.
“I guess I could see it a little bit, but we’re right on track with the same thing we always say. You can’t take away from Belal. He fought amazing in that fight. That’s part of being a fighter. You have to deal with shit like that. Things like that have thrown me off in the past, too, 100 percent during fights. I know it. I don’t necessarily say it publicly. But it is factual. It does happen but that’s being a fighter.”
There’s an old adage among fighters that sometimes you have to be your best on your worst night.
Brown knows there’s numerous examples throughout his 15 years spent competing in the UFC where he faced some outside the cage issue that ultimately affected his performance. More often than not, The Ultimate Fighter season 7 alum knew the difference between winning and losing didn’t always just come down to skills or ability.
But Brown also acknowledges that no matter how much brutal honesty Edwards and his coach are dishing out after a tough loss, the reaction from fans, fighters and the media is always going to be the same.
“There’s always a reason why you lose, whatever that reason is,” Brown explained. “There’s a reason. When you speak it out loud, it’s an excuse. No matter what it was. There’s just no way around that. It becomes an excuse.
“You just don’t speak it out loud, in my opinion. Believe me, I’m not trying to make it about myself, but speaking on my own experience, every loss I’ve ever had I could give you legitimate reasons why it happened. There’s very few where you walk away, and the guy was simply better than me. There’s reason that goes into every time. You know that you could have done it. When you say it out loud, it’s an excuse.”
In Edwards’ situation, fighting at an extremely odd hour may have been what cost him the chance to retain his belt in a third straight title defense. Instead, he was repeatedly taken down and controlled for large portions of the fight as Muhammad executed a nearly flawless strategy to counter and defeat him.
That loss is obviously going to sting because Edwards had so much riding on that fight so Brown definitely understands the desire to pinpoint a reason why all that happened.
Unfortunately, Brown believes addressing it publicly is going to look bad no matter how you frame it.
“Leon being the champion and losing, of course he’s going to discount what Belal did,” Brown said. “He’s looking for answers for why did he lose, and obviously that’s what he’s chalking it up to, at least publicly. Maybe in private there’s other things. But I think it’s a legitimate answer for him. Maybe Belal had to deal with the same thing. Had Belal lost maybe he would have used the same excuse, used the same reasoning.
“The fact is again, you can word it however you want, when you bring it up, it’s an excuse. There is legitimately reasons a lot of times why you lost that are not simply because the guy was better. But you just don’t say anything about it.”
On Saturday — at a much more reasonable time — Edwards returns for a fight against Sean Brady where a win could potentially catapult him back into title contention or possibly knock him way further back with a loss. That’s where Edwards gets to chance to show his loss to Muhammad was a fluke rather than attempting to explain where it all went wrong.
“It’s not do or die, but it’s huge implications in this fight,” Brown said. “Leon has a long road ahead if he ends up losing this fight. The same for Brady. If he loses this fight, he’s probably going to be look at as a great fighter that never got to the title, one of those guys — kind of like myself — one of those guys. He’ll kind of be in that category. He won’t be expected to make it to the title. Just the opposite if they win.
“If either one wins, they’re definitely knocking on the door, and we know how this game is. You could end up getting a title fight at any time, but also, you’d think they be in at least a title contender match after a win here.”