Lightweight Marcus Edwards gained a ton of notary this past July when he stepped in at the last minute – replacing an injured Mike Ricci – to fight Pat Healy in the main event of Titan FC 34. Despite losing that championship fight by second round TKO, Edwards was dominating the first round before running out of steam in the second. Edwards (10-4) now looks to get back on the winning track when he faces LT Nelson on November 6th at Prize FC 12 and spoke to MMAOddsBreaker on Episode 129 of The Parting Shot Podcast. How the decision came down about the offer to fight Pat Healy on short notice “[Titan FC] called me at 11pm at night and asked me if they would take the fight. First thing I did was check my weight and I realized I was 28-pounds over the 155lbs mark. I had a little bit of doubt in my mind about taking the fight. I talked to my coaches and a couple of people in my inner circle; I thought it would be a good opportunity to take the fight for a title against a high level guy. I stay in the gym 24/7, I was in good enough shape to step in there and fight. Stepping in, I loved the opportunity, it was a great experience. I proved to myself a lot of things in my career. I proved that I’m able to conquer things that 99% of other guys wouldn’t have been able to conquer. It was a tough fight mentally more than anything, it was an awesome experience.” Logistical issues fighting for Titan FC, despite competing for RFA the fight before that “No [issues] at all. I had a one fight contract with RFA; they wanted to sign me to a multi-fight contract. I’m a little afraid of that when I’m not getting guaranteed fights throughout the year. So I don’t want to get on the shelf and get held up. I like to fight a lot and frequent. There were no problems with that and I was free. I had also got offered to fight LT Nelson and we figured [the Healy fight] would be a tougher opponent and harder obstacle to overcome. My life’s always been an uphill battle so I’m used to it.” Titan FC 34 fight with Pat Healy, almost finishing him in the first round “Oh man I though the fight was going to be over. I hit him with some hard punches, I mean solid hard punches. I’ve hit people with way less and they’ve gone down. I hit him with a couple of punches, he was rocked and I pounced. I got to give it to him he has a chin and he has that fight inside him. Not a lot of guys have that. Pat Healy is one of those guys where that’s just his game plan, take the punch and weather through the storm. I knew that going in, but in my mind I’m there to finish. I’m just as tough as any other guy so I figured I’d go in there and finish him. The first round was great I dominated him, landed all the strikes pretty much. I think he hit me a couple of times with a leg kick and maybe a body shot. Other than that, I dominated the first round I rocked him three times. He tried to take me down at the end of the round and I defended the takedown. Going into the second round I just wanted to keep my movement up. I knew my cardio wasn’t where it should be going into a tough fight like that. I just wanted to make sure I stayed on my bicycle and kept moving. I ended up getting a takedown off the cage and transitioning to his bank. I sunk in that rear naked choke and everything inside of me was like I just accomplished so much. I just took down that mountain, cutting the 28-pounds on short notice. All those emotions started to boil over. He just had more in him then I did, unfortunately he was able to slip out of it. I just gassed, I gave it everything, and my arms weren’t there anymore. I wasn’t able to work out of the situation and he got the finish.” Current contract status “I’m actually under contract with Titan FC; I’m under a four fight contract with them. They actually allowed me to take this fight out of contract. They allowed me to take this fight in between so I can get a fight in and they knew I was itching. This fight is a little sooner than [their December card] so I thank them for that. I’ll be back with Titan FC at the beginning of the year.” Matchup with LT Nelson at Prize FC 12 “I believe I match up well against him. He’s a great stand-up fighter; he’s really awesome on his feet with his kickboxing. He doesn’t like the ground game, he hates it. His last fight I was able to watch [against Anselmo Luis Luna Jr. at Prize FC 10] LT has a mean right hand, he ended up getting a cross coming off a takedown and putting the guy out. He’s a dangerous guy, he’s very technical. A little bit of a slow starter but once he gets going he’s a tough guy to beat. I’m excited to fight him; I believe we should have fought a long time ago. We both came up in Colorado, in the MMA scene and I fought his teammate Justin Gaethje in my first professional fight. I’d like to fight Justin Gaethje again considering the way the first fight went. I’m looking to go out there and make a statement by beating LT Nelson and having fun. LT and I are buddies we see each other at local promotions and we’ve been around for a while. At the end of the day this is a sport and sometimes you have to fight your buddies. This is the first time I have to fight somebody I know. I think it’s going to be fun and I actually like that I’m fighting somebody I know.” Training camp for this fight “We have a lot of different guys, Chase Hackett who’s very big on the jiu-jitsu side. Being with a guy who’s been there, done that and having him in my corner, that’s a big benefit of mine. Just having Josh Cavan, Brian Camozzi, Chris Camozzi, Brian Rogers and Dustin Jacoby, I get to go with all these bigger guys. I’m kind of the guy that’s in between; I can go with the little guys or the big guys. But mostly I have to go with the bigger guys; I think that plays into my advantage going into the cage. Brian Foster is my main sparring partner he actually has a fight coming up two weeks after me at WSOF for the lightweight tournament. We’re both in camp and pushing for it.” How this fight ends on Nov. 6th “I know I can finish him in any aspect of the sport, whether it’s on the ground, stand-up against the cage. He’s a tough guy, not taking anything away from him. But I’ve been training my ass off and I feel like I have a little bit more on me, emotionally, mentally and that’s what it comes down to. I’m feeling positive and really good about this.” You can follow Marcus on Twitter @BadIntentions91 and you can listen to the full audio version of this interview below (62 mins in) on Episode 129 of The Parting Shot Podcast
