Frank Mir Questions Frankie Edgar’s Decision To Fight Brian Ortega
Even though it’s been nearly a week since this fight happened, people continue to come out and comment on Frankie Edgar’s last fight.
In the co-main event of UFC 222 event that went down March 3, 2018 on pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Brian Ortega scored a big victory over the former UFC lightweight champion.
As for the reason that people were questioning Edgar’s decision to take this fight is due to everything he had on the line.
Edgar was originally scheduled to challenge for the featherweight title currently held by Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 222.
However, Holloway had to pull out of the fight with an injury. All Edger had to do is not fight at this event and wait for Holloway to get healthy enough to fight again and then boom, he has the title shot that he has fought hard to earn.
You have to keep in mind that Edgar had not fought since May of 2017 before UFC 222 and if he didn’t take the Ortega fight then he would’ve been out of action for most likely a year.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir has recently spoken out about this fight.
According to the now-Bellator star, he believes this is a fight that should not have been agreed upon by the Edgar camp in the first place.
“If I was Frankie Edgar’s manager and he wants to take this fight, I’d be like ‘No, Frankie, we’re not taking this fight,” Mir said on his Phone Booth Fighting podcast (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow). “Why? Because this is a dangerous fight. This guy is big, he hits hard, he’s knocked out everybody he’s fought so far in the UFC, and if you go out there and just barely beat him, it makes us look worse going into our Max Holloway fight.”
“We’re also gonna take the time off. You’re an older athlete, you’ve been fighting for a long time, you’ve earned your title shot. You’ve earned your place in UFC lore, you’re gonna be a f—king Hall-of-Famer. We don’t need to give a hand out to this kid Ortega and help him out.”
“You taking this fight is not what’s best for you,” Mir continued. “You have nothing to gain, the other kid Ortega has everything in the f—king world to gain. Even if he fights you in a close war, his stock goes up and your stock drops. Who wants those kinds of fights?”
Mir went one step further by saying that he thinks Edgar would excel if the UFC made a weight class in between featherweight and bantamweight. It should be noted that Edgar’s own coach Mark Henry thinks he could fight Edgar.
“I think Edgar is just screwed that 135 is too difficult of a cut for him, and (at) 145, he still looks small against everybody he fights at featherweight,” Mir said. “He almost has the length of a guy who is at the bantamweight weight class, but just can’t quite cut the muscle tissue to get down there and effectively be able to perform.”
“When guys are smaller in correlation to their size and percentage, it’s a bigger difference,” Mir added. “Someone being 20 pounds bigger than me at 260 to 280, that’s the difference of like a five-pound difference down there at the 130’s.”
“I can lose five pounds by skipping breakfast. (But) tell Demetrious Johnson ‘hey, we need to drop five pounds in the next hour.’ He can’t just skip breakfast, he’s gonna be bouncing around for a while, because (it’s) five pounds in percentage to his weight.”
