Leon Edwards: Tyron Woodley ‘clout chasing’ with pursuit of Israel Adesanya

Leon Edwards cannot get his head around Tyron Woodley’s posturing for a clash with UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.

Ahead of their recently canceled headline bout at UFC London, former welterweight champion Woodley told ESPN that things had become personal between him and Edwards. Yet, since the event was officially canceled, Woodley has called out a number of fighters and seems to have distanced himself from the possibility of meeting the surging Birmingham native.

Woodley has underlined his interest in clashes with welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington, Adesanya, Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz since the cancellation of UFC London. Edwards finds the absence of his own name “strange” considering Woodley’s previous comments that he was relishing the thoughts of facing him.

“It’s strange; it’s very weird,” Edwards said on this week’s episode of MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.

“Since the fight has been postponed, he hasn’t mentioned my name one bit, which I find very strange. If I had a fight with a man who I said had lit a fire under me…and you said what you were going to do to me, I would be pushing for that fight to happen. But like I said, since the fight has been canceled he hasn’t once mentioned my name. He’s calling out lightweights…even the middleweight champion he’s calling out – I think the man is just lost.”

“He’s up there in age, he’s 38 years old,” Edwards added. “He done an interview saying how he spent all his money…I don’t know whether he’s trying to get some money under his belt before he’s retiring, but he’s calling out everyone other than me, which is a very strange, strange thing.”

After seeing Woodley’s recent online back and forth with Adesanya, Edwards accused his welterweight rival of “clout chasing.”

“He’s saying everyone is clout chasing, but I think he’s one of the biggest clout chasers. He’s going out and calling out the middleweight champion, Izzy, and just calling for other random fights – it seems to me that’s a clout chaser. He’s chasing around other peoples’ clout by trying to get a fight with them, he’s trying to use their name to build his name. I think he’s lost; he just doesn’t know where he stands now or what he wants to do.”

Edwards revealed that he messaged Adesanya when he saw the online spat, but the middleweight champion scoffed at Woodley’s approach.

“When he tweeted Izzy, I messaged Izzy and he was like, ‘The f*cking kid is lost…he hasn’t got a clue what he’s on about!’ Like I said, he’s clout chasing and trying to find something to stick.”

As far as Edwards is concerned, Adesanya has no interest in facing Woodley.

“No, Izzy, knew what the craic is anyway,” he said laughing. “We’ve got the same management company so he knew what the sketch was anyway…he knows that’s my work!”

Check out Leon Edwards’ return to Eurobash. It begins at 12:00.