Nickname: N/A

Yves Ed'duvill Edwards (born September 30, 1976) is a Bahamian professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He is known for his fights as a lightweight in organizations such as the UFC, PRIDE, BodogFIGHT, and EliteXC.

Biography

Edwards was born on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, moving to Houston, Texas in his teens.[citation needed]

Martial arts background & training regimen

Yves Edwards is the the founder of a fighting style called Thug-Jitsu. Edwards began training in traditional karate in his youth, moving on to kung fu before eventually taking up mixed martial arts.[citation needed] This also led him to Muay Thai in order to improve his stand-up.[citation needed]

Like many aspiring martial artists, Edwards cites Hong Kong cinema as a formative influence:

“I’ve always liked the old Hong Kong flicks, and I was a big comic book fan: you know the superheroes, they were always big in my mind. Anything that will make me physically better than the average person, and teach me to do things that the average person can’t do, I was game for it.”[1]

Based in Houston since his teens, Edwards says he learned some grappling on a trip back home to the Bahamas at the age of seventeen, although “it wasn’t as technical as it should have been, but it was better than not getting anything.”[2]

He is a well-rounded fighter, with a strong boxing background [3], having also trained with Lewis Wood, a #6 WBA featherweight boxer. This is in addition to his experience in Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, of which he says “I’ve never worn a gi cause I’ve always been competing” [4].

At UFC 49, Edwards knocked out Josh Thomson by way of spectacular head-kick. After the fight, commentator Mike Goldberg announced: "I will say right now, this kick has replaced Pete Williams on Mark Coleman as the greatest knockout due to a kick in UFC history."

Yves Edwards is now training with American Top Team and is focused on getting back to the top of the 155 pound division.[5]