‘Punish him’ – Edwards warned he needs to make big tactical change at UFC London after falling into champion’s ‘trap’
LEON EDWARDS has been urged to abandon his cautious approach and be “aggressive” in his crunch comeback clash with Sean Brady.
Rocky’s return to octagon action tops the bill of a stacked UFC Fight Night 255 card at London‘s O2 Arena tomorrow night.
Edwards, 33, will bid to get back to winning ways against submission specialist Sean Brady in his first outing since losing the welterweight strap to Belal Muhammad last July.
The Brummie’s dethroning was partly down to allowing Muhammad to be the aggressor and backing up against the fence, an approach which worked well in his trilogy fight with Kamaru Usman and victory over Colby Covington.
And former middleweight champion and TNT Sports UFC pundit, Michael Bisping believes a change of tact is needed from Edwards to get himself back in the win column against the relentless Brady.
‘The Count’ told SunSport: “Leon does back up against the fence.
“But he’s got to abandon that in this one because he’s got to go forward.
“He’s got to put Brady on the back foot.
“He’s got to punish him, he’s got to land, he’s got to get respect.
“And he’s got to make Sean Brady doubt himself by cracking him in the head with whatever it is.
“He needs to hurt Brady. And we saw late on in his title win over Usman what he can do when he needs to finish.”
Bisping knows a thing or two about the mindset Edwards will have going into tomorrow night’s showdown with Philadelphia pounder Brady.
He jumped straight back into the fire 21 days after losing the middleweight strap to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 217 in November 2017.
And he’s hoping the pressure of Edwards’ title aspirations potentially going up in smoke on home soil will so him do away with his recently adopted conservative approach.
Britain’s first UFC titleholder said: “In terms of his mindset, he’s got to be aggressive.
“He’s got to go forward and he’s got to try and put Brady on the back foot.
“When you’re the champion; I think he fell into the trap of almost fighting not to lose.
“You’ve got to be aggressive, he’s got to go forward, he’s got to hurt Sean Brady and put him on the back foot.
On Edwards fighting yet another grappler, Bisping insists: “It’s business as usual [for Leon].
“Because he’s fought and beat that style pretty much his entire career People are always looking to try and take him down.
“So he just parlays all the hard work that he did in all the other training camps into this one and hopefully gets the job done.”
Watch UFC Fight Night: Edwards vs Brady exclusively live on TNT Sports and discovery+ from 5pm on Saturday 22nd