Edwards looks to return to winning ways at Strikeforce

Yves Edwards hasn't exactly had the best of luck with MMA promotions in his career. When he was in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he was known as the uncrowned lightweight champion. Then the UFC decided to cut their lightweight division. He went off to Bodog Fight and lost two fights there. After that, he moved on to EliteXC, which had gotten some good ratings.

Now, EliteXC is out of the picture and Edwards is hoping to get some good luck on his side. He will be fighting Duane "Bang" Ludwig on Friday night in Strikeforce. Edwards had been waiting for EliteXC to call him back and line a fight up for him, but it never materialized.

"After the fight in Hawaii, I was promised more," Edwards explained on MMAWeekly Radio. "Well, not promised, but told I'd fight on the September show. That didn't happen. I kind of got pushed back to October and then that didn't happen. Then it got pushed back to Nov. 8 and that didn't happen. I was like, 'this kind of sucks.'

"I called my manager and said I needed a fight. Not having to fight is kind of depressing. It just kind of worked out that Josh needed a fight. Two days after I accepted the fight, they said EliteXC was done. I'm excited to have a deal with Strikeforce. They're a good company."

Edwards was very disappointed that EliteXC never got him another fight because he was waiting anxiously to get back in the cage and make some money. Unfortunately, that never happened and not having an official fight kept him from being able to really get excited to get back in there. "It really did suck. You don't count on it like you need it, but you expect to work. You're going to fight on this date, and they offer you opponents. You get excited to train for it. You start preparing. When it falls through and it doesn't happen, it's disappointing. A lot of guys get ready for fights, they hear about their opponents four, five, six weeks ahead. The financial hardship is another tough part of it."

A rematch with current Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson was on the horizon for Edwards on Friday night, but Thomson was forced out due to a broken toe. Thomson and Edwards had a memorable first fight in the UFC with Edwards landing a highlight reel kick to knock Thomson out. The fight was highly anticipated, but unfortunately for Edwards, bad luck found him again.

"The first words that came out of my mouth when I heard that was the F-bomb," joked Edwards. "I was kind of disappointed. It was going to be a good fight. I was looking forward to it. Josh was running his mouth about me. It got me amped up to fight. That's the way the ball rolls. I'm willing to play the game."

Due to the short notice of the fight, the bout will take place at a catch weight of 164 pounds. Luckily for Edwards, he didn't start his weight-cutting process too soon. "Right around the time when the call came is when I was about to start cutting down the weight. I hadn't done too much work yet. It just kind of worked out where I didn't have to cut too much."

One positive aspect of the change of opponent is the fact that Edwards is training with one of the best camps in the world, American Top Team. ATT has plenty of excellent fighters that have helped Edwards out and bring him to the next level of his career. He feels very confident because his camp has prepared him well and has an assortment of different guys that can simulate different opponents.

"For me being down here (in Florida), it's completely different," he said. "If I was in Texas, it would have been a lot harder. We have such a variety of guys down here to switch up. They could change the fight again and I have a different guy to work with. I feel the time wasn't too bad. It could've been better, but it could've been worse."