Next Friday night will mark the Titan FC debut of Factor X Muay Thai’s Marcus Edwards as he will meet Adam Nijem on the preliminary card of Titan FC 33 at Mobile AeroFest in Mobile, Alabama.
Edwards (8-3) is a finisher as all of victories have come by either knockout or submission and seven of them have come in the opening round.
The fighter out of Golden, Colorado will let you know that he is an aggressive fighter, but it was not until recently that he learned how to have controlled aggression.
“That is something I have been battling with for awhile,” Edwards told The MMA Report. “I feel like I finally have control of it. I feel that it comes with a lot of experience and I feel like I have that experience factor now. Sometimes it works in my favor and I finish the fights pretty quick. Sometimes, depending on the situation or the position, I might throw something way to hard and have to much aggression or something. It will put me in a bad spot but I feel like I have gotten control over it and it’s just something that comes with experience after a period of time and fighting some pretty tough guys.”
When it comes to training for his opponents, he is not the type of fighter that watches tapes of his opponents. He leaves that up to his head coach, Marc Montoya. He allows Montoya to instruct his sparring partners on the looks they need to give him to get ready for a fight.
“I really do not look at video or tape on my opponents,” Edwards explained. “I just let my coaches and the people around me to do that. Go ahead and game plan my sparring partners to fight, imitate something that they may do or have tendencies to do. I just focus on me. I focus on being the best Marcus Edwards I can to the fight. Be healthy and getting in there and being in shape. I feel like that is all I need. Everything else, you kind of move and groove. Go with it on the fly in the fight.”
Not only is Montoya his coach, Edwards says he is like his best friend. One of the qualities that Edwards likes about his coach is that he knows how to separate being a coach and being a friend.
“Marc Montoya means a lot to me. He is like my best friend. He is the one person in my life. The one coach in my life that — I played sports since I was a child. The one thing he does very well and the one thing I feel our team has been so successful, he knows how to separate being a coach, and not just a coach, an amazing coach and being your friend. He knows how to separate that.”
“Some coaches have a hard time doing that. Marc does it so well that you can not tell the difference between the two. He plays it well and does a great job. He motivates you and says the right things and the right times. The one thing that is great about him, when we are doing strength, he is right next to you doing strength. He is a standup coach and when we are doing wrestling, he is right there wrestling with you and learning. He is a great person as well as a coach. I would not want to be anywhere else than fighting under him.”
At Titan FC 33, he will meet Nijem, who is the younger brother of UFC fighter Ramsey Nijem. When it comes to how he will win the fight, it’s very simple for Edwards. Be the best version of himself.
“I just go in there and be myself,” he said. “I bring what I have to the table and I see what he comes back with. I just work me. Be Marcus ‘Bad Intentions’ and I feel that I will walk out of their with my hand raised.”