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Frankie Edgar challenges Max Holloway for the featherweight title at UFC 240 on Saturday in Edmonton.
A counted-out Frankie Edgar enters a title fight against a dominant champion, who happens to be from Hawaii, as a big underdog.
Sound familiar?
That was back in 2010 at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, when Edgar challenged B.J. Penn for the lightweight title. Edgar was a 5-1 underdog against Penn, who at the time had held the belt for more than two years and was the most dominant force in the division’s history.
Edgar beat Penn by unanimous decision in what is still considered today one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Nine years later, Edgar finds himself in a bizarrely similar situation — just in a different weight class. “The Answer” meets featherweight champ Max Holloway in the UFC 240 main event Saturday night in Edmonton. It’s a fight that has been scheduled twice before.
Holloway, like Penn, is right now a dominant force in his respective division, having held the title since 2017. Holloway, like Penn, calls Hawaii home. And Holloway, like Penn, is a big favorite over Edgar, currently sitting at about 3.5-1.
It won’t be known whether Edgar, 37, will be able to repeat history until Saturday. But when asked if he sees some similarities between the Holloway bout and his first Penn fight, Edgar couldn’t help but say yes.
“It does seem very familiar to my first fight with B.J., where people are overlooking me, I’m fighting the most dominant champion in the weight class, (who’s) from Hawaii,” Edgar told MMA Fighting on Thursday at UFC 240 media day. “It does, it does. Very eerie.”
Edgar joked before his 2010 rematch with Penn that perhaps fans overlooked him in the first fight because he was cute. When asked if that, now that he’s a veteran, could possibly be the same reason why fans are sleeping on him in the Holloway fight, Edgar said:
“Do I still think I’m cute? Absolutely.”