The harrowing story of Leon Edwards’ journey from gang shooter to UFC champion

Leon Edwards was just nine years old when he moved from Jamaica to Birmingham with his mother and younger brother.

His father, once the leader of a local gang, was the first to move to England from Kingston. The parents had separated, so the father lived in London.

Four years later, Edwards’ mother picked up the phone and received a devastating call.

At 2am in October 2004, she learned her husband had been shot and killed in a nightclub in Croydon.

Leon Edwards is the current UFC welterweight champion. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

“I knew what he was involved in, so I knew eventually something would happen to my dad,” Edwards told the BBC.

“When it’s a late call, you know something is bad. It was a traumatic situation. It wasn’t like he died in his sleep – he was killed.

“It was like a spiral effect; it definitely made me angrier and more willing to take part in that life.”

Edwards puts his father’s death down to “something to do with money”, and at the age of 13 he began to gravitate towards “a life of crime”.

“We did what all gangs do. We sold drugs, there were robberies, shootings and stabbings,” he said.

Edwards has reached the top of the UFC. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

“I was arrested a few times, for beatings and knives. My mother had to come to the ward many times to take me out.

“I knew what I was doing was breaking her heart, but I kept doing it because your friends do it and as a teenager you’re involved.

“The moment your brain is so diluted and so focused, you think this is life and this is your world. You can’t see outside of it.”

Edwards’ life changed forever when he was walking to the bus stop with his mother and she saw a gym above a DVD rental store.

At the age of 17, Edwards took up mixed martial arts (MMA) and never looked back.

After enrolling in a few classes, he proved to be a natural.

Edwards was close to going another way. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

“I saw my mom was proud of me, bringing home trophies and that, and that’s what kept me doing it,” Edwards explained.

“If you did something negative (in the gangs), everyone supports you, then if you do something good, I realized you get the same praise, so I thought, ‘Well, I might as well do good then”.

“I thought I should enjoy my life and not have to look back at people trying to stab me, see the world – and that’s what I did. I put all my energy into training at 17 and I just never looked back.”

At 18, he made his first amateur debut, and just five years later he signed with the UFC.

His record is 26 fights, 22 wins and three losses, with one no contest. Now, the 32-year-old is currently the UFC welterweight champion.