Exclusive Fabian Edwards Interview:

Exclusive Fabian Edwards Interview:

Article by Jon Prentice

This week I got the chance to catch up with BAMMA’s unbeaten standout middleweight Fabian Edwards where he gave me his take on his recent victory at BAMMA 34 and what the future holds for him.

Jon: It has been a good couple of weeks for you and your brother Leon wouldn’t you say?

Fabian: Yeah it has been a good few weeks with me winning two weeks ago and my brother winning this past weekend, it has been a successful week or so!

J: Your fight with Kent Kauppinen was 2 weeks ago now, have you had a chance to watch it back and if so what are your thoughts on how it played out?

F: I watched it back on the same night, I’m a bit disappointed I could have put him away with my hands or feet. I should have put him away a lot earlier and I should not have got sloppy and let him catch me with a s**t punch .

J: Did he offer anything that you weren’t expecting or was it just your own performance you were not happy with?

F: He never offered anything at all, his head was there to be punched, he didn’t want to engage, he never offered anything that I wasn’t expecting. I thought he would have been a lot more aggressive but once he was standing across the cage [from] me he realised it wasn’t a game. He was scared to let those hands go.

J: That’s 3 straight wins now by submission. During your amateur career most of your wins came by KO/TKO, do you have any preference and do you think the last 3 finishes show your evolving all-round game?

F: Everyone knows that when I was an amateur I was mainly getting knockouts, now I’m showing everyone that I don’t mind mixing it up. As an amateur I just wanted to stand and bang in a sense, so now I’m just showing that I can do it everywhere, that’s what this sport is all about. I’m scary everywhere.

J: So what’s next for you? After the fight you called out Mike Shipman challenging him to the title, recently on Twitter you have got into a bit of a war of words with Alex Lohore, who’s next for you? Who would you want and when?

F: The question is, who the f**k wants to fight me? I mean if you want to fight me you need to pay me good. At the moment I’m meant to be fighting on the BAMMA Dublin card but doesn’t look like that will happen. We are going back and forth with one or two promotions, I’m hoping to be fighting in May, I will have better news for everyone hopefully next week. We are going back and forth, not even to find the right fight, we are just trying to find the right amount of money and who wants to fight, because the problem that I am having is that people don’t want to fight which is the main case with BAMMA, or these other shows are trying to offer me f*****g less money and I am not going to fight for pennies. It doesn’t make any sense! […] They will speak to my manager and they are like “I thought you would fight anyone,” and my manager tells them “he will fight anyone but we are not going to fight people for pennies as it does not make sense to us.” At the end of the day I am in it to win fights and make money at the same time, I am not in there to fight and be homeless.

J: You have said previously that you like to stay active and fight regularly, is that still the plan? Obviously the further you go in your career and the bigger the fights get the more preparation time is needed. Do you still want to just fight as regularly as you can?

F: The stage that I am at I don’t think I need to slow it down and that is the attitude I am going to keep until I get to the UFC. I don’t want to be one of these fighters that are fighting once a year. I like fighting, I enjoy fighting, I enjoy the benefits that come with fighting and I am going to keep chipping away. […] At the moment I am looking on track to fighting every 3 months which is what I want.

J: Your brother Leon fought and won last Saturday, he said he wanted on the UFC Liverpool card, would you join him on the card if the UFC came calling? Or would you prefer to fight on separate cards?

F: I would love to do that. If the UFC came calling then of course I would want to be with my brother on the Liverpool card. I’ll watch him dismantle Darren Till and he can watch me dismantle a random middleweight.

J: Talking about the UFC middleweights, you have said before that you already see yourself as on their level, is there anyone in particular in the UFC middleweight rankings that you think you would beat or at least be competitive against?

F: I would smoke Derek Brunson and he is in the f*****g top 10. He is sloppy man, sloppy. The other day Brad Scott wanted to have a spar because he thinks he is better than me….Bradley Scott is s**t. You know what I mean? Fair do’s to him for being in the UFC but his last fight if he didn’t win he would have got cut. You know he is in the UFC but more people probably know me than they know him so f**k Bradley. I’ll go over to the UFC now and slap Bradley. F**k all of them. If you are not part of my team then that’s how I see it.

J: Leon has previously flown out to America and trained at AKA, is that anything you would like to do in the future, or are you happy with your set up a home with UTC and Renegade Jiu Jitsu?

F: I’m happy with my set up but at the same time it is always good to go to other gyms and test your skills against these guys and even pick up one or two new skills. It is also good to do that but I would never leave the camp.

J: Bellator MMA 200 is coming up and teammate Aaron Chalmers is on the card. What are thoughts on that and how far can he go in the sport?

F: I think he will do good. He has flown out to American Top Team, he is over there and he is going to make waves and do his thing. Obviously I think that just shows how seriously he is taking it. A lot of people are doubting him but at the moment he has been finishing everyone.

J: Final question, past or present any fighter of any weight class, what would be your dream fight?

F: I think it would be Yoel Romero. I would love to fight Yoel Romero. He is seen as one of the scariest fighters and I am about hard fights and I want to fight everyone. I don’t want to be like “i’m not going to fight him or him” I want to fight all the hard guys. […] I want to run through everyone, I don’t want to be like I dodged him on the way. There are a lot of guys that I want to fight but they aren’t signed to BAMMA they are signed to other promotions. Hopefully in the future we will cross paths but we shall see.

The MMA world will be looking forward to hearing what Fabian Edwards next steps are, and from the sound of things we shouldn’t have to wait too long.

Thank you to Fabian Edwards for his time and we at Fightbook look forward to speaking to him again in the future.