UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards doesn’t think he will face Islam Makhachev anytime soon, contrary to the latter’s heart-felt desire. ‘Rocky’ defeated Kamaru Usman two years ago, while the latter looked almost invincible and was considered the welterweight GOAT by many, including Dana White.

Since then, he has faced multiple call-outs from lightweight champ Islam Makhachev, who harbors double-champ aspirations (just like the Englishman). Dagestani had called for a clash with Edwards after his UFC 302 victory over Dustin Poirier just last week. But Edwards thinks there is a lot of work for him and Makhachev to do in their respective divisions, but he sees it as possible down the line.

“I’ll welcome it. I think we all got work to do within our division. Let’s say we both go on this reign, then why not, you know. He just fought his first lightweight… so I feel like you got, like a few more lightweights to go through first before even thinking about moving up. But like I said… why not later on in the future? [We’re] both similar ages, 32 years old, so we got the time to get it done.” he said in a recent interview with Sky Sports.

As the 170-pound champion pointed out, Islam Makhachev has only one actual title defense against a fellow 155-pounder. While the lightweight champ has three official title defenses on his resume, two of them came against Alexander Volkanovski, who moved up from 145 pounds to fight the Dagestani.

In addition, it seems Edwards himself is harboring double-champ aspirations, and hopes to fight for the middleweight crown in the near future.

Leon Edwards wants to fight for the 185-pound crown next year

In the same interview, Edwards revealed that he wants to become only the sixth concurrent two-division champion of the UFC. The 32-year-old is, of course, scheduled to defend his title against Belal Muhammad at UFC 304 next month. After which, he wants to defend his title three more times by the latter half of next year. By the end of next year, ‘Rocky’ said that he would like to face the middleweight champion for a shot at the 180-pound title to become only the sixth concurrent two-division champion of the UFC.

“Defend my belt twice this year, that will be four defenses. Maybe one more [defense] next year, that’s five defenses. Then later on in the year, have a big middleweight fight. That’s six title fights… That is my goal. Two [defenses] this year, one next year, then end of next year move up,” he said.

What are your thoughts on Edwards’ plans?

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