Third Time’s A Charm? Christian Edwards hopes it is, because it’s been a long five months with one man on his mind.
Edwards (5-0) returns to the Bellator cage for the sixth time on Saturday. He faces Ben Parrish (4-1), an opponent he has been scheduled to fight twice before in a matter of months.
The pair was originally scheduled to fight at Bellator 259; however, Edwards wasn’t medically clear to compete. They would be scheduled to fight a month later at Bellator 261, but Parrish was the one to pull out of the fight this time. Edwards would stay on the card and defeat Simon Biyong via unanimous decision.
Well, Edwards and Parrish are scheduled for the third and hopefully final time this Saturday. Which has Edwards knocking on wood whenever he is asked about it, because he wants this chapter to be over.
“I’ve thought about hurting this man for too long. Like more times than I can honestly count,” Edwards told Cageside Press. “It feels good to know that this chapter of my fighting career is over, you know. It feels like its that finally going to go through; you know what I mean? No more crazy doctor stuff, no more pull-outs. It’s on.”
Edwards isn’t looking past Parrish at all; in fact, he respects that he is a very confident fighter, but he knows that he doesn’t have a chance.
“As an opponent, I’m not looking past him in any way, shape, or form, but also at the same time, like, as an opponent, like skill-wise is not there with me. Like, not even close if being honest,” Edwards said. “He is very confident, which I like, you know what I mean? Like, he’s confident, and he genuinely thinks it will be a competitive fight. I want him to think that because I want him to bring his best. I want the best Ben Parrish.”
“But when he steps in there with me and starts moving around with me and feels how strong I am and quick I am. He’s going to be like, ‘oh, wow, this like this is what elite looks like, you know, like this is an elite fighter and like I’m not there.’ So that’s how I feel about him as an opponent.”
Edwards sees himself finishing Parrish, and on the off chance he doesn’t, it will be a “three-down beat down same as my last opponent.”
The 22-year old fighter is part of Jackson-Wink MMA, which at one point was the gold standard of fight camps. He believes the camp is still elite and has always been elite.
“We actually had a meeting this last Monday, and Coach Greg said we are at like a 92% win rate, which is really f*cking good. Considering most gyms are something lower than that, most of the time, you know, I mean, like, that’s really good. So it’s like, yeah, I think we’ve always been a super camp. I think we’ve always been the best camp, and, yeah, I think it’s going to stay that way until MMA isn’t a thing anymore,” Edwards said.
Christian Edwards fights Ben Parrish at Bellator 266 on Saturday, September 18. The main card airs live on Showtime.
