Frankie Edgar Is Pissed At UFC, Blasts Dana White
Several fighters threw their name into the hat to replace Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196 to fight UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor
Frankie Edgar, who was rumored to fight McGregor in the main event of UFC 196, was not happy to hear that Nate Diaz would be fighting McGregor in a welterweight bout at the event. It also doesn’t help that Edgar is the number one contender for the featherweight title.
“I got a call from Ali saying that Rafael dos Anjos got hurt, and [the UFC] had texted him, ‘will Frankie fight him at 155?’ And, I’ve been hurt for the past four weeks,” Edgar said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. “I’m pissed off for a couple of reasons. I’m pissed off that I’ve got this opportunity slip through again. I’m sitting here, I’m the one who’s been trying to fight this guy for months now. I’m flying myself to Vegas on my own dime to lobby to get a fight with this guy and now here comes the opportunity, and I’m hurt, and I can’t take it. I haven’t done anything in four weeks. I didn’t just pull my groin, I tore it. I sent Dana and everyone in the UFC my MRI.”
Edgar brought up UFC President Dana White claiming that he refused to take the fight, which made him mad.
“I’m even more pissed that Dana’s insinuating that I ‘refused’ to take this fight, which is bulls***. Just because they asked me doesn’t mean they were going to give it to me because guess what, in July they asked me to take the [UFC 189] fight on 15 day’s notice, which of course I accepted, and I still didn’t get it.
“I have a feeling that if I had said ‘yes,’ if Ali had texted back ‘yes,’ that fight still would have went to Nate Diaz,” he continued. “I think Nate Diaz was the fight they were trying to make since the beginning. From what I hear, they contacted Nate even before they contacted me. But now Dana wants to go around saying that I ‘refused ‘to take this fight, and I don’t know if he’s going to try to use it against me in the future when another opportunity comes up where I can fight for the belt, and he’s going to say, ‘well, you had your opportunity, and you said no.’
Edgar explained that the C in the UFC stands for Conor after all of the special treatment the promotion has given him.
“This is a circus. The ‘C’ in UFC stands for Conor. This guy runs the show.”
UFC 196 takes place at MGM Grand Garden Arena on March 5 and airs on PPV, FOX Sports 1, and UFC Fight Pass.
It will be interesting to see if the UFC gives Edgar a shot at McGregor later this year or if the UFC will keep McGregor fighting at higher weight divisions.
