Frankie Edgar Gives His Opinion On Conor McGregor’s Future
UFC 200 got a face lift earlier today (Wednesday April 27, 2016) as the rematch between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones was confirmed as the blockbuster PPV’s main event. “”DC’s” revenge or “Bones” regaining the belt will be the main story to come from that stacked night on July 9, but up until this point it’s been all about Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz. “The Notorious” sent the MMA world in to a tailspin last week as he retired, un-retired, got pulled from his UFC 200 rematch with Diaz and all because of a missed media obligation.
Meanwhile the former champion Jose Aldo, whom McGregor starched at UFC 194, and top ranked 145-pounder Frankie Edgar have been paired for their own rematch at UFC 200. With McGregor absent for the moment, the junior belt has been created for “Scarface” and “The Answer” to vie for in the co-main event, as the Irishman’s strangle hold on the featherweight category remains, at least for now.
A collision between Frankie Edgar and Conor McGregor is by all accounts long overdue, and if you ask the fired up Edgar he’ll tell you the same thing. Fortunately for us lovers of drama in the lower weight classes, the UFC 200 press conference today was crammed with questions about Conor McGregor, and Frankie Edgar was present to give his interesting opinions about the man many claim to be avoiding him.
First off Frankie Edgar addresses his next fight with Jose Aldo, before the conversation inevitably moved to the subject of Conor McGregor. “The Answer” claims to be a new man coming in to the rematch with Aldo, who’d won their last fight in a very close split decision:
“Three years have passed, I’m a different fighter and he’s a different fighter. This time around I’m coming in with the momentum, this is my time now. Being a two division champion is something I’ve been trying to do for a while now, since the first fight with (Jose) Aldo, July 9 there’s going to be another two division champion, and his name’s not going to be Conor McGregor.”
When McGregor was originally slated to face Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 197 (which then changed to UFC 196) before the lightweight champion’s injury, he could have become the first consecutive two weight UFC champion. Of course his welterweight loss to Diaz shattered a lo of options at UFC 196, but now Edgar lives in hopes of beating McGregor as the next name on the list of fighters to win belts in two divisions. Who knows, maybe Edgar could challenge for the lightweight belt if he gets success as a featherweight champion, which may not be too long if McGregor vacates the 145-pound belt:
“Jose and I are both going for the same thing, we gotta fight for the interim title and then go for the real thing, if Conor ever does come back down to defend it. I’m ready man, I’m walking home with that belt. It’s the number one contender belt. But I don’t think Conor McGregor will ever come back down to defend his belt, who knows, then it will become the real belt. I don’t think he was scared to fight me, I think he was scared of the result. He knows that fighting at 170 or 155 he could come back down maybe, but there’s that risk at 145 that he would lose that belt to me.”
