As their interim featherweight title fight at the landmark UFC 200 event in July draws closer, Jose Aldo has surprised some in the MMA community with the way he has been talking about his opponent, Frankie Edgar.
Aldo out-pointed Edgar in their previous fight for the 145-pound title back in early 2013, and according to the Brazilian, Edgar has not evolved much in the three years that have passed since their initial meeting.
After hearing Aldo’s brash comments, Frankie Edgar spoke with MMAFighting.com and pointed out his belief that Aldo is doing what many in the UFC have been doing since seeing the success Conor McGregor has had, which is bringing trash-talk into the build-up of their fiights.
“You’re seeing it across the board in all weight classes,” Edgar said. “Guys are getting more vocal. They’re just seeing what it’s done for Conor, so they’re trying to kind of make their voice heard. I think that’s what Aldo is doing. Arguably, you could say I haven’t lost a round since me and Aldo fought. He’s just been in some either pretty boring (fights), or wars since our fight. So, I think I’m the one who looks like he’s evolved more than Aldo has. So yeah, I don’t know. I think he’s just talking the fight up.”
Edgar continued, “This guy is like I said. People are trying to talk. He’s just not that great at doing it, you know?” Edgar said.
“He’s just trying to create buzz, and I get what he’s trying to do, but we all know he doesn’t fight injured. The guy pulls out of fights every other fight, so he definitely doesn’t fight injured. So we can just throw that one away. And everybody talks about how our fight was close. He wants to sit there and have this false sense of security? Maybe that’s why he’s trying to talk like this, because he’s dealing with this knockout loss. But, by all means, go ahead and go in there super confident.”
Aldo-Edgar II is scheduled for the landmark UFC 200 event, which features Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones II for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship in the main event. UFC 200 is scheduled for Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.