Featherweight contender Frankie Edgar is “pissed off” with UFC president Dana White, saying the “C” in the organisation’s name stands for “Conor” in the wake of the decision to replace the injured Rafael dos Anjos with Nate Diaz for the upcoming UFC 196 headliner against Conor McGregor.
Per MMA Fighting’s Chuck Mindenhall, Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz was approached regarding a fight with McGregor by the UFC, but the 34-year-old is still recovering from a groin injury and had to turn down the opportunity. But he believes White is now insinuating he “refused” to fight McGregor, and that doesn’t sit too well with him:
I’m even more pissed that Dana’s insinuating that I ‘refused’ to take this fight, which is bulls–t. 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.
[…]
And this is what my team was pissed at. This dude, they were going to let this guy hold the 145-pound title, go up to 55, now two weight classes are being held up. And now they’re saying he’s going to go up to 70. This is a circus. The ‘C’ in UFC stands for Conor. This guy runs the show.
Per UFC’s official fighter rankings, Edgar currently ranks as the second contender in the featherweight division behind Jose Aldo, who lost his title to McGregor at UFC 194.
Per Mindenhall, Edgar was promised a title shot, but McGregor has since moved up to the lightweight division, leaving Edgar as the odd man out.
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