For Fabian Edwards and Team Renegade, it was a good night on Saturday at Bellator 287 in Milan, Italy.
Both Tim Wilde and Edwards picked up wins on the main card, and for Edwards (11-2), the #2-ranked middleweight in the promotion, that makes it two straight wins. The unanimous decision victory over SBG Ireland’s Charie Ward came in the evening’s co-main event.
After the dust had settled, Edwards said he would only rate his performance a 5 out of 10. That, despite nailing Ward with a head kick that the Irish pugilist was somehow able to work through. “It’s alright. It’s alright,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight.
“The thing that Charlie has is, he’s tough and he’s gritty. There’s not a lot of guys in the division that would have ate that head kick and be even able to keep their wits about them. So fair play to Charlie, he gave me a good test tonight, and I appreciate that test.”
Talk all week has surrounded Edwards as a potential challenger to Johnny Eblen, Bellator’s current middleweight champ. Given his own rating of his performance, it wasn’t a surprise to hear Fabian suggest that he hadn’t done enough to secure a title shot.
“The win wasn’t enough in my opinion, but we’ll see what they say. I’m here. My brother said keep on racking up the wins and they can’t deny you,” Edwards stated. “Not every single performance can be an elbow to a ground n’ pound finish or a flying knee or upkick. Sometimes you have to go in there and you have to do what you can do to secure the win, and I learned that tonight.”
Costello van Steenis, who also won earlier on the night, was critical of the suggestion that Edwards should get a title shot. The Dutch fighter holds a win over Edwards, and running it back is something Edwards is more than open to.
“Any man that’s ever beat me, in anything, of course I’d like to get it back. That’s even a fight that I did ask for, but we’ll see. We’ll see what Bellator wants to make. I would love to entertain that fight again.”
Watch the full Bellator 287 post-fight media appearance by Fabian Edwards above.
