The raw story of a UFC star about his childhood: “We were used to shooting,...

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welterweight champion, is the son of a Jamaican gang member and told how martial arts took him away from the gangster life to which he aspired 13 Dic, 2023 11:49 a.m. EST Share Escuchar Leon Edwards, UFC champion (Reuters) Leon Edwards, UFC champion (Reuters) In August 2022, Leon Edwards caused a surprise in the UFC by knocking out Nigerian Kamaru Usman and taking the welterweight champion belt from him. More than a year after that fight and while he is preparing for his third defense of the title, the Jamaican gave an interview in which he gave hitherto unknown details about his hard childhood in which he constantly lived with death in the streets. of a gang-dominated Kingston . The 16 classified for the round of 16 of the Champions League were confirmed: the details of the draw and the shocking prize for the champion It may interest you: The 16 classified for the round of 16 of the Champions League were confirmed: the details of the draw and the shocking prize for the champion In an extensive talk with the British site The Guardian , the 32-year-old fighter recalled what his life was like in the Caribbean country

My dad was a gang leader in my area and that's why I was one of the few children who had a bicycle and a skateboard. If you consider the cards he was dealt, my dad did the best he could. I know that he was wrong to get involved   WhatsApp Number List in a crime and that led to his death. But he was smart enough to emigrate to the UK and soon brought his wife and children to join him in search of a better life. Not only did he leave us because he was a good man, but, in bad circumstances, he made wrong decisions. But we must remember that in Jamaica killing seemed normal. “We were used to gunshots and death around us.” That environment shaped Edwards , whose future prospects were not very encouraging and at that time he never even imagined being an athlete: “My goal in life was to be like my father: the biggest gangster. Now I look at my own son, who is 10 years old, and I can't imagine him living my life. But now I have a normal mentality. Back then I grew up with death and now I can see how the mental health of the community was damaged .” At the age of 8 he moved with his mother to Birmingham where his father was waiting for them and he was finally able to get away from the streets. The contrast was brutal because in his home in Kingston he slept with his brother and his parents in the same bed, in a wooden hut with a tin roof, now all that was a thing of the past.



I had my own room. I could not believe it. It was also much safer than Jamaica, where , when there were shootings, you would go under the bed because the bullets would go through the wood ,” he recalled. It may interest you: Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal in Al Nassr's victory and extended his lead over Messi in the fight to be the top scorer in history When he was only 13 years old, his father was gunned down in a nightclub in the middle of a gang war in the area and, while trying to adapt to his new life, he had to learn to cope with grief: “Losing your father to a murder makes it worse.” . My mother had to work even harder to support me and my brother, so you start blaming everyone. “Those were the darkest moments of my life.” If the first change in his life occurred when a plane took him to England, the second was undoubtedly when a gym opened near his new home. His mother, who was trying to ensure that his son did not spend too much time on the street getting bad friends, encouraged him to sign up for some activity. It was then that he was introduced to mixed martial arts. It may interest you: “Everything you set your mind to can be achieved”Ramón Díaz's emotional speech to the Vasco da Gama team to save themselves from relegation Today.