- Gold. Gold watch for gold belt.
It make sense.
It fit for a champ.
Hey GQ, it's Leon Rocky Edwards here
UFC Welterweight Champion,
and these are my essentials.
[upbeat music playing]
- My Belt [ Leon laughs]
- [Interviewer] What does it feel like to be Champion?
It means the world to me.
It's a, a dream I've had since I was 16 years old when
first got to mixed martial arts.
So, to finally achieve to come into UFC world champion.
It's a, a dream come true.
And I, I look to keep it for a very long time.
This is on the new UFC belt, you know, there was one before
but so when you win you get like a, a red, a red rubies.
Every time you win you get like, like finesse.
You gotta like collect the stones, you know?
So you gotta go, go around and collect, collect them all.
But then that's, that's something what I'm about
to do and then retire it, you know. So...
- [Interviewer] As far as the rematch goes,
will we see you in London?
- Yeah, for sure.
I think the rematch has to happen back home in on my turf.
You know, I feel London would be great.
I feel Dana White is sending to us
a- like a stadium show, like 60,000 people.
Like that's a dream come true for me.
So it's, it is gonna be good to go back home
defend my belt, and then go again.
[upbeat music playing]
My next essential will be the headphones.
- [Interviewer] What do you listen to when you train?
- Hip hop is a must
and I was born in Jamaica, so reggae, that's like
before fight I was just like, like
like hardcore reggae, you know.
And, but in training camp,
it's normally like hip hop or depends on
how I'm feeling, you know, like
on runs a lot like slow, like slower music.
You slow jams like reggae, like it's sizzler
like that kind of music, you know, like anything that's
like a gimme time to think, you know,
my, my walkout song is Dexta Daps, you know
he's a Jamaican artist.
That's on my last two walkouts.
Music and sports go go hands in hand in hand, you know
and for me, hip hop is my hip hop, reggae drove.
I need that kind of vibe to get into that training you know.
Some days we get tired and that's the kind of vibe we need.
[upbeat music playing]
- I was born in, in Kingston, Jamaica immigrated
to the UK when I was 10, 9, 10 years old.
So yeah, this is my, like my roots, you know
I got back to Jamaica stay in Island, been back for a while.
So yeah, this is roots to me.
Your history. From moving from Jamaica to the UK
is like a, can you speak Patois?
You don't speak like English, you know?
So you had a few fights in school
like kids making fun of you, but over time you got used
to the lingo and the language.
When I think I came to the UK so young.
My, I learned, I learned it fast, you know
I think maybe if I came a little bit later
I would still had a still Patois trying
you know, so my dad first brought me
to the UK when my dad like suddenly got murdered in the UK.
Now at age 13.
And this is what I call home now, you know
and it's a big um Caribbean community
in the UK you know, Caribbean or African.
It's a mixed culture, especially in my city
where I'm from in Birmingham, England.
I think that's why I, I adapted so fast to it.
[upbeat music playing]
- Always like bring a pair of gloves in me
like even a traveling or like realistically
that's all you need to, to fight, you know, these are the
UFC gloves, they're different
from like the boxing gloves, but fingers open
so you can like grapple and wrestle and jiu-jitsu.
And so I think these are like my, my essentials as far
as like this is basically my work, you know
this is like my briefcase.
So I'll bring to work. This is everything.
I train the camp. It's twice a day, you know.
I train like morning every day, every 11:00 AM every morning
and I'm back again at five o'clock every evening, you know.
So that's my full 10 weeks.
Like now I do like once a day I train every morning
and I got the rest of the day to myself, you know
[upbeat music playing]
- My next essential is the Rollie GMT Master 2 .
I've always been into watches now
like my community anyway, that's like a, a trophy
you know like, it's like successing.
So it goes with everything.
It's a nice gold watch goes at all black
or just t-shirt, coat
whatever you wear, it's good to have around, you know.
I think you look good, feel good, you fight good.
I say looking, looking clean in, in the UK we don't really
like ice like the rappers do like the ice it out
what I, that depreciate the watch, right?
So it's like it, it's clean and playing and nice.
It's a growing man watch.
You know, it's a, yeah it
for the fit for a champ.
Gold watch for gold belt. It make sense.
[drums playing]
- This is what, what I grew up on.
This is my Sunday dinner, you know, like, like
on Sundays you family cook and this is what my mom makes
you know, I've recently opened up a restaurant for my mom
a Jamaican restaurant cause she's such a good cook
that she wanted to do.
And this is like one of our main dishes, you know.
So this is, I bring back to my just family, you know, home.
If I'm traveling
I can find like a nice Jamaican restaurant, for sure.
But at home,
I'm definitely going back to my mom's house.
- [Interviewer] How are your cooking skills?
- Not good.
I got like an air fryer, don't, like
I put I bang like air, an air fryer, you know.
But in camp I got like a nutritionist that makes my food
for me and shit.
So it's easier to do.
But outside camp just everything is air fried.
[upbeat music playing]
- I dunno like the history of sneakers
but I just like the way they look, right?
So I've got countless Lows
to Highs
to Yeezys.
Everything, you know.
Daily like if being honest with you,
it's more like a Crocs, you know?
Cause I'm going through like the gym every day.
So if not
it'll be like these, like Lows, Lows, goes with everything.
Like I said, like jeans in sweatsuit, a tracksuit.
The Lows or the Yeezys
they're comfortable and they fit with anything, you know.
- [Interviewer] What's the most money you ever
spent on a pair of sneakers?
- I bought the, the Off-White Nike.
97s in LA for, for a thousand dollars I think it was.
That's that, that's Nike's, you know
but I won't do that again.
I wore them like once and I ruined them. So yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
- My next essential will be my phone.
I travel a lot for work, you know, so I'm more
than FaceTime to my son or family back home, you know
over the last two months I've, I've spent
like a week at home, you know, so I'm more on the road.
So I think family first for sure.
For me, WhatsApp is one of my main apps for social media.
Like Instagram, I've got Twitter and everything else.
But for Instagram, WhatsApp is like my definitely daily
daily essentials, you know.
Soon as I wake up it's bad.
Just soon as I wake up in the mornings
like straight onto your phone, you know?
And then you get like a routine where give myself
like a little half an hour before like I check my phone,
you know.
But get in contact with my family
and my friends with work.
The week of the fight
I try to like stay off the phone, you know
I don't read a comments so what's going happen?
I like to focus
on what I need to get done, you know, which is the fight.
So yeah, I think fight week is probably the only time.
Like I got a lot little downtime on the phone, you know
[upbeat music playing]
- Feel good, look good, you know.
That's like the throwing little hat with a sweatsuit
with whatever, you know, frontwards-backwards.
We're every, you know, but yeah, it's like I
got a few pre-hats are so yes it is.
I like, I like it.
Yeah, I'm more like a, like a
a snapback kind of guy, you know?
I can adjust it and....
[Interviewer] Do you own a lot of hats?
- I've got, I got quite a lot of pair.
I got sent, I get sent a lot of pairs are, you know
I get like a hundred pair wear like two
of 'em on a daily, you know.
But I was like to have it just in case, you know.
Thank you for having me GQ.
It was fun.
Peace out.