In an interview with Louis Theroux, former UFC champion Leon Edwards has opened up on his past in gangs and a meeting with Andrew Tate before the controversial personality’s arrest.
Edwards, who held the UFC welterweight title from 2022 until 2024, is due to return to the Octagon in March – as he headlines UFC London against Jack Della Maddalena.
Ahead of that fight, the British-Jamaican appeared on The Louis Theroux Podcast to discuss a difficult youth, which saw him navigating gang culture in Birmingham.
“I think once my dad died, when I was 13 years old, I kind of went down that same similar path, you know?” Edwards, 33, told Theroux. “Getting involved in gangs and drugs and stuff like that.
“[It was with] friends in the area where I grew up, friends in school. At the time in Birmingham, there was like two massive gangs: Johnny’s – Johnson’s – and Burger Boys. I weren’t affiliated as much with them, [but was around] Johnson’s [more] because my school where I went to in Aston was where he was tied. So they’ll all be outside school, hanging out and robbing kids and stuff like that.
“I think I was kind of like blaming the world for what happened to my dad, and I was going on a similar path, getting involved in stuff like that. Been arrested, not been to jail.
“Been arrested for like carrying knives and stuff like that, but I’ve never been to prison. I feel like carrying knives is insecurity, right? You don’t know how to protect yourself with just your hands, and I feel like most kids that do it, they do it out of fear.”
Edwards was also asked about meeting Tate, a controversial social-media personality who has been embroiled in a human-trafficking case since 2022. Edwards seemingly had dinner with Andrew and Tristan Tate in October 2022, two months before the brothers – and two Romanian women – were arrested in relation to the case.
“I was in Dubai,” Edwards said. “One of my friends is good pals with him. He invited me out for dinner. I was there on holiday, and [my friend] said, ‘I’m going for dinner tonight with Andrew, are you coming?’ I said, “Yeah I’ll come,’ and that was it.
“That was like the peak of him I would say. He was quite popular by then. Yeah, [I was aware of his content]; some things that he says make sense, some of it doesn’t make sense. I feel like, I don’t know, it’s each to their own.
“I think he knows that he has to say some outlandish things to attract the masses, and that’s what he did. But within that attraction to masses, he’s also trying to spill what he’s trying to say to his group of fans and people.
“[Our meeting] was years ago. He was just like a normal guy. We had dinner. [Tristan Tate was there], a few girls. We talked about fighting. [Andrew] used to do kickboxing as well, to quite a high standard, from what I believe. We talked about just like life and that was it. Went our separate ways.”
Theroux joked: “That’s not gonna make any clickbait…”
