Former UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards not too long ago spoke about postcode wars which have plagued England and different nations, together with Jamaica the place ‘Rocky’ spent a lot of his youth earlier than shifting to the UK.
For these unfamiliar, the postcode wars check with a time when teams of youngsters, often boys, would defend their “turf” by preventing gangs from different postal codes in the event that they dared to enter a postcode they didn’t reside in. It’s not totally completely different from the turf wars between rival gangs in america just like the Crips and the Bloods that dominated American tv within the mid-to-late 90s.
And identical to with lots of the big-name gangs within the U.S., youngsters and younger adults within the UK would usually put their lives on the road for what basically amounted to a fierce pleasure within the space they referred to as house and a consequential hate of anybody who wasn’t from there.
Sadly, gang tradition remains to be as sturdy as ever in nations like England and Australia, usually leading to property injury, critical damage, and even demise.
Throughout a latest interview with Louis Theroux, Edwards spoke about his robust upbringing in Jamaica and on the imply streets of Birmingham the place he usually fought rivals entrenching on his turf.
“From faculty, , I’ve all the time—I’m the one which all the time, um—I’m the pal that, like, in the event you’re subsequent to me, you’re within the combat. ‘Trigger, , I received’t go away you, ? And, um, so I had the identify ‘Rocky’ from faculty,” Edwards mentioned. “Straightener, simply one-on-one. I don’t know, may—could possibly be something, or postcode, or no matter. It’s bizarre, however on the time, I actually believed it.
“Um, I used to be group Erdington, say, like, B23. With a younger mentality, and your folks are doing the identical factor, and that’s your setting, I feel you’re extra more likely to be a product of your setting. It’s like, similar as Jamaica, ? Like, there, the folks that have died over it most likely don’t even know the explanation why it began. They usually’ve died over it.”
Leon Edwards returns to the octagon on March 22
In fact, these days are lengthy behind Leon Edwards. At the moment, ‘Rocky’ is likely one of the finest pound-for-pound blended martial artists on the planet.
After seeing his 12-fight win streak snapped by Belal Muhammad in his final outing, Edwards will return to the Octagon on March 22 when the UFC heads again to London for one more stacked Combat Night time in ‘The Large Smoke.’ In the principle occasion of the night, Edwards will face rising contender Jack Della Maddalena in a title eliminator — a minimum of on Maddalena’s facet of issues.
