Christian Edwards believes he has the game plan to get the finish at Bellator 239

Looking back on his pro debut year in 2019, light-heavyweight Christian Edwards couldn’t be more pleased with how the year turned out.

After a bit of a stutter to start his career, Edwards managed to get in two fights in 2019 for Bellator, picking up first round finishes in both of them.

“Honestly I don’t think it have gone any better,” Edwards told MMAWeekly.com. “When it started out in March and my opponent didn’t end up making weight it was pretty disappointing, but I stayed hungry and went straight back into training and it gave me more time to improve, so when I made my debut it couldn’t have went any better.

“I had a great debut then had an even better fight in my next fight. It was a very successful year for me.”

For Edwards, the fighter he was at the conclusion of 2019 was a far more evolved one than the fighter he started out the year as.

“It’s such a monumental change,” said Edwards. “I got a lot of improvement on areas I needed work on not just far as skills go, but the mental aspect as well.

“I feel like there are areas that I have improved tremendously on, and there’s still room for improvement. I learned a lot about myself as a mixed martial artist.”

On Friday in Thackerville, Okla., Edwards (2-0) will look to extend his undefeated streak when he faces Marco Hutch (3-2) in a preliminary 205-pound bout at Bellator 239.

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“Honestly I think that he is a great opponent in general and I’m really excited for this fight,” Edwards said of facing Hutch.

“I don’t want to say too much about the fight because I already know what I need to do to beat him. I just have to go out there and trust my training, trust my coaches, and trust the game plan. They gave me a good game plan, and I’m going to stick to the game plan and go out there and get a finish.”

Though Edwards wants to approach his 2020 step by step, he does have a good idea of where he’d like to find himself by year’s end.

“I just kind of go fight by fight,” said Edwards. “I don’t want to look past any opponent. I want to focus on one goal, one obstacle at a time.

“When it comes to where I want to be at the end of the year, I want to be in the Top 10 for sure of the light-heavyweight rankings in Bellator.”