CULTURETECHLENSLeon Edwards
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-08009 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7137.
Leon Edwards (born August 25, 1991, in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican-born English mixed martial artist raised in Birmingham, England, and a former UFC welterweight champion. Edwards ground through a decade in the UFC — including a nine-year unbeaten run — to earn his title shot, and on August 20, 2022, at UFC 278, down on the scorecards against Kamaru Usman, he knocked the champion out with a head kick at 4:04 of the fifth round, the fourth-latest finish in UFC title-fight history, becoming the first Jamaican-born UFC champion and only the second England-based fighter to win UFC gold. He defended the title twice, outpointing Usman in their UFC 286 trilogy bout and Colby Covington at UFC 296, before losing it to Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 in Manchester in July 2024. The slide continued: Sean Brady submitted him in March 2025 — the first finish loss of his career — and Carlos Prates knocked him out in the second round at UFC 322 in November 2025. A July 2026 bout fell through when his opponent was rescheduled; as of September 2026 he stood #10 in the UFC welterweight rankings with a record of 22–6 and one no-contest.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Leon Edwards (born August 25, 1991, in Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican-born English mixed martial artist raised in Birmingham, England, and a former UFC welterweight champion. Edwards ground through a decade in the UFC — including a nine-year unbeaten run — to earn his title shot, and on August 20, 2022, at UFC 278, down on the scorecards against Kamaru Usman, he knocked the champion out with a head kick at 4:04 of the fifth round, the fourth-latest finish in
The record
- Also known as: Rocky
Notes
Edwards's reign ran August 20, 2022 – July 27, 2024, with two successful defenses. His first meeting with Usman (a 2015 decision loss) predates the championship meetings by seven years. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Edwards's head kick is the most famous single strike in British MMA history — one kick, 56 seconds from defeat, that turned a decade of grinding into a championship. Photo: CLEARED — Leon Edwards UFC BELT 2023.png, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Referenced by
- Kamaru Usman — related to → this record
Sources
- UFC athlete profile, “Leon Edwards”; accessed 2026-11-04 (primary source · build store)
- Wikipedia, “Leon Edwards”; accessed 2026-11-04 (build store)
- MMA Informed, “Edwards shocks Usman with late head-kick KO” (August 21, 2022); accessed 2026-11-04 (build store)
- Cagewalks fighter profile, “Leon Edwards”; accessed 2026-11-04 (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Leon Edwards with the UFC welterweight championship belt, March 17, 2023
Leon Edwards with the UFC welterweight championship belt, March 17, 2023 — Leon Edwards, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Record CTL-E-7137 · Combined Graph record U-08009 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Leon Edwards (CTL-E-7137).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7137/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Leon Edwards (CTL-E-7137) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7137/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Leon Edwards (CTL-E-7137).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-7137/
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