{"id":300313,"date":"2023-12-12T18:24:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T18:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?p=300313"},"modified":"2023-12-12T18:24:29","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T18:24:29","slug":"tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span>EXCLUSIVE<\/span> Tom Aspinall predicts Leon Edwards WILL retain his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296 &#8211; as heavyweight champion reveals how &#8216;Rocky&#8217; will &#8216;outsmart&#8217; the American<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>On Saturday night, Leon Edwards will defend his belt against Colby Covington\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Tom Aspinall revealed to Mail Sport who he thinks will claim victory on the night\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Will 18-year-old Moses Itauma break Mike Tyson&#8217;s record by becoming the youngest ever heavyweight champion? Listen to The Hook\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tom Aspinall has predicted that Leon Edwards will &#8216;outsmart&#8217; Colby Covington in their UFC welterweight title fight and retain his belt.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Edwards and Covington will share the octagon at the T-Mobile Arena in Nevada on Saturday night in the main event of a highly-anticipated UFC 296 card.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;ll be Edwards&#8217; second-ever UFC title defence, after he stormed to a majority decision victory over Kamaru Usman at the O2 Arena in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While some have tipped &#8216;Rocky&#8217; to have a difficult time against Covington &#8211; who&#8217;s last appearance in the octagon was in March 2022 &#8211; Aspinall has backed his compatriot to get the job done in Nevada.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking exclusively to <span>Mail Sport<\/span>, the UFC heavyweight champion said:\u00a0&#8216;I think he&#8217;s [Edwards] got a massive chance of winning. I think he&#8217;s definitely going to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/11\/78734061-12841231-image-m-36_1702036736575.jpg\" height=\"359\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/11\/78734027-12841231-image-a-37_1702036745006.jpg\" height=\"359\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Tom Aspinall has predicted that Leon Edwards (R) will &#8216;outsmart&#8217; Colby Covington (L) when the two clash in UFC 296&#8217;s main event on Saturday night<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think that Leon is massively underappreciated, as a UK champion. The guy&#8217;s absolutely incredibly so smart in the Octagon makes amazing decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I think he&#8217;s gonna outsmart\u00a0Colby Covington. Like he&#8217;s way more slick. He&#8217;s just like a smooth, slick operator.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m a big fan of Leon, his style and his approach to the game and everything. And yeah, he&#8217;s just going to outsmart Colby.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Colby is a great fighter in his own right, but I believe that Leon is way smarter than him&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The UFC 296 card has been one the most talked about cards in 2023 &#8211; with a number of prominent British fighters featuring on the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As well as Edwards and Covington&#8217;s bout, Liverpudlian fighter Paddy &#8216;The Baddy&#8217; Pimblett will also be making a return to the octagon on the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pimblett will take on UFC veteran Tony Ferguson in a lightweight bout on the main card, with many fans excited for the mouth-watering match-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/12\/78734033-12841231-image-a-39_1702036799948.jpg\" height=\"460\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Edwards defended his belt for the first time when he faced Kamaru Usman back in March<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/11\/78734035-12841231-image-a-38_1702036797269.jpg\" height=\"465\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Aspinall asserted that Edwards is &#8216;massively underappreciated&#8217; within the MMA community<\/p>\n<p>Weighing in on the bout, Aspinall &#8211; once again &#8211; backed his compatriot to earn victory on the night and suggested that Pimblett will win &#8216;pretty handily&#8217;.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8216;I think the Baddy takes it. I think that if someone&#8217;s coming in off six losses and Paddy&#8217;s coming in off around six seven wins&#8230;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I know Paddy&#8217;s off the back of surgery and everything but I think that Paddy is way younger and fresher than\u00a0Tony Ferguson. Ferguson has got a lot of miles on a clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Granted, he&#8217;s a really good fighter but I think he&#8217;s time as fighting young and fresh guys is over for him and I think that he&#8217;s going to win that fight pretty handily&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Having recently won the UFC&#8217;s interim heavyweight championship, it&#8217;s fair to say that Aspinall has a decent understanding of what it takes to claim gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the same interview,\u00a0Aspinall\u00a0admitted that he has no interest in a boxing match while he waits to unify his interim heavyweight title.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/12\/78734391-12841231-image-a-40_1702037225527.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Paddy &#8216;The Baddy&#8217; Pimblett will also feature on the highly-anticipated UFC 296 card<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/12\/78734397-12841231-image-a-41_1702037233300.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Aspinall has tipped Pimblett for victory when he takes on UFC veteran Tony Ferguson<\/p>\n<p>Rumours had circulated that Aspinall &#8211; who has previously trained with heavyweight king Tyson Fury &#8211; would be open to stepping inside the boxing ring while he awaits a unification bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, when pressed on the matter again, the Mancunian distanced himself from the idea and suggested that &#8216;headlines&#8217; got &#8216;messed up&#8217; during that week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether he was genuinely intending to step into the boxing ring, Aspinall said:\u00a0&#8216;No, it&#8217;s not serious. See, this is where headlines and actual interviews get messed up a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If you watch the interview when I was talking about the boxing thing, somebody just asked me would you be interested in boxing? Like, in the meantime.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was like &#8220;Yeah, I guess&#8221;. That&#8217;s all I said on it! It wasn&#8217;t like I wasn&#8217;t coming out saying &#8220;I want to box now&#8221; because I&#8217;m not going to box.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/08\/12\/77699405-12841231-Aspinall_took_the_fight_on_two_and_a_half_weeks_notice_and_deliv-a-42_1702037242579.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Aspinall also insisted his current goal is to unify his UFC heavyweight title won in November<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;ve got so much work to do in the UFC and I don&#8217;t want to be one of these fighters who thinks I&#8217;ve done enough work because I&#8217;ve got a title.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I want to fight for the undisputed title is what I want to do. That&#8217;s my goal. And I want to fight a couple of these legends before they retire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Mate, I&#8217;ve got so much work to do over the next&#8230; however long, before I even thinking about boxing. So right now, I&#8217;m definitely not trying to box.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Do I want to box before the end of my career? Probably but, if I don&#8217;t, I&#8217;m alright with that as well&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2023\/10\/25\/The%20Hook_Promo_Desktop.636.png\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12841231\/Tom-Aspinall-predicts-Leon-Edwards-retain-UFC-welterweight-title-against-Colby-Covington-UFC-296-heavyweight-champion-reveals-Rocky-outsmart-American.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE Tom Aspinall predicts Leon Edwards WILL retain his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296 &#8211; as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE Tom Aspinall predicts Leon Edwards WILL retain his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296 &#8211; as [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"All My Sports News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Tom-Aspinall-reveals-how-Leon-Edwards-WILL-retain-title-at-UFC-296.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/\",\"name\":\"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/category\/mma\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/\",\"name\":\"All My Sports News\",\"description\":\"allmysportsnews.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\",\"name\":\"mediabest\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mediabest\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News","og_description":"EXCLUSIVE Tom Aspinall predicts Leon Edwards WILL retain his UFC welterweight title against Colby Covington at UFC 296 &#8211; as [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/","og_site_name":"All My Sports News","article_published_time":"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00","author":"mediabest","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Tom-Aspinall-reveals-how-Leon-Edwards-WILL-retain-title-at-UFC-296.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mediabest","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/","url":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/","name":"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296 - All My Sports News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-12T18:24:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/mma\/tom-aspinall-reveals-how-leon-edwards-will-retain-title-at-ufc-296\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA","item":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/category\/mma\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Tom Aspinall reveals how Leon Edwards WILL retain title at UFC 296"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/","name":"All My Sports News","description":"allmysportsnews.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609","name":"mediabest","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mediabest"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allmysportsnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}