Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Cory Sandhagen was not pleased about Frankie Edgar stepping in to fight The Korean Zombie at UFC Busan.
Former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was supposed to make his bantamweight debut at UFC Raleigh on January 25th against Cory Sandhagen. Those plans are now scrapped after “The Answer” decided to step in as a last-minute replacement to face “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung at UFC Busan.
As tough as they come
@FrankieEdgar steps in to the main event of #UFCBusan vs @KoreanZombieMMA. pic.twitter.com/kIrtRkQzqm
— UFC (@ufc) December 6, 2019
Now left without the opponent, the number three-ranked Sandhagen expressed his dissatisfaction through a written statement he sent ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
Asked @cors_life how he felt about potentially losing the @FrankieEdgar fight next month. In short, he isn’t happy. Here’s what he said: pic.twitter.com/KQwCOKr3LT
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 5, 2019
It’s not cool of Frankie to do something like that. I don’t know if money got involved or what, but I thought this guy wanted to have another run at a belt and to call himself the best in the world. I thought that’s the kind of fighter Frankie was.
It’s what he said he wanted. – it’s sad that his values got mixed somewhere and now he’s taking a fight that isn’t going to get him within arms reach of a title, like the fight against me would.
The UFC is trying to do their jobs and save a huge card, which I get, but they’re also losing a shot at an opportunity to turn a young, new face into a star and the Raleigh fans are going to be pretty bummed too.
UFC Busan will take place on December 21. It is not known whether Sandhagen will get a replacement opponent. Helwani had previously reported that the UFC was trying to still keep the Edgar-Sandhagen fight intact even though Frankie is fighting Jung later this month.