Leon Edwards will return towards the end of this year, once his brother Fabian has completed his effort at middleweight gold.
The former UFC welterweight champion lost his belt to Belal Muhammad last summer at UFC 304 in Manchester. He proceeded to lose successive fights for the first time in his career as Sean Brady forced him to tap out in the main event of UFC London last month.
Edwards has already back in the gym working on developments to his game following two difficult defeats. He is currently in Orlando to corner his brother Fabian, who takes on 2023 champion Impa Kasanganay in the quarter-finals of the $500,000 PFL World Tournament.
Leon Edwards plotting return to the octagon in late 2025
After his two defeats, Leon Edwards has returned to the gym to continue working on his skillset and come back stronger for his return to the octagon. First, however, he will be focused on his brother Fabian Edwards’ efforts in the PFL World Tournament.
A successful run in the three-fight knockout competition would see Fabian fight on Friday night, then again in late June before a final at the end of August. That would allow Leon ample time to refocus on his own career and get ready for another charge towards the title.
“I think it will be a bit of both,” Fabian told Bloody Elbow of his brother’s plans. “Obviously he’s in training for himself just developing and pushing and fixing whatever he needs to fix and then helping me alongside that. Develop, help me, then look for a fight probably end of the year.
“He’s been around watching my sparring, he’s flown out with me to Florida and he’s alright. He’s around the family and everyone and that’s about it… The UFC has never done us any favors in terms of the match-ups.
“They’ve never though ‘okay stylistically, they’re a good matchup for Leon,’ they’ve always thought about it like ‘who can we give him to not have him win?’ They’ve been successful with the last two but we just keep pushing.
“Our coaches just say ‘keep winning, then they can’t deny you’. That’s what he done. He kept winning, got himself a title and defended it. Not many people can say they’ve done that so you can’t erase that from history.”
Fabian Edwards opens up about brother’s defeats
It’s been a difficult year for the Edwards family, going 0-3 in their efforts in the UFC and PFL cages. Leon was defeated by Muhammad and Brady, while Fabian’s second chance at Johnny Eblen’s Bellator belt was similarly unsuccessful.
The circumstances have lit a fire under Fabian, who opened up about how he and his brother have handled defeat in the past year.
“Any fight we enter we never think to ourselves ‘we’re going to lose’,” Edwards continued. “Obviously it was tough because stylistically it was a tough matchup and Brady has grown from his loss a few years ago.
“So we knew it would be tough but that’s just how it goes… If he went out there and got his head broke then maybe it would be worse. But going out and not being able to do what we knew he could do is a hard thing to swallow but that’s the game that we chose.”
