‘It Was F—king Magic’

Joe Rogan is still in awe of Leon Edwards’ crazy title victory two weekends ago (Aug. 20, 2022) at UFC 278 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Calling the action live and in person, the longtime UFC commentator thought the fight was essentially over as did the rest of the viewers watching around the world. Then it happened.

With one minute remaining in the fight, Edwards threw his Hail Mary in the form of a left high kick, connecting perfectly to the dome of now-former Welterweight kingpin, Kamaru Usman (watch highlights).

“[The head kick] was so perfect, it’s so textbook,” Rogan said on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “But that’s the thing about Leon, he’s so technical. The way he does things just so smooth and so efficient and so, it wasn’t shocking that he could do that. It was shocking in the context of his performance up until that moment.

“The way he feinted with a right hand, extended the left that forced Usman’s head to move off the centerline and threw the kick at the same time, it was f—king magic,” he concluded.

Edwards’ epic victory in his rematch against Usman has set things up beautifully for a massive rematch. The current hope for UFC is to manage to put the trilogy together in the champion’s home country of England, preferably in a stadium.

Regardless of where “Rocky’s” title run goes from here, he has etched his spot in the history books with the win, becoming only the second-ever British UFC champion behind Michael Bisping. The overall performance itself, however, also won’t be one that’s soon forgotten.

“It’s the greatest come-from-behind head kick knockout ever,” Rogan said. “F—k, it’s crazy. We always knew Leon Edwards was really technical and really good, but I just assumed the battle was lost.

“Kamaru, as the champion he is, took over [after round one] and he won most the remaining rounds and it looked like it was three rounds to one,” he concluded.