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Less than 24 hours after Brian Ortega was forced out of his Featherweight scrap against Chan Sung Jung at UFC Fight Night 165 on Dec. 21, 2019 in Busan, South Korea, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has found a worthy replacement.

According to MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, Frankie Edgar will step in to face “The Korean Zombie” on just three weeks notice.

Early rumors had “The Answer” pegged as the favorite to replace “T-City,” and now that it’s official, Edgar’s Bantamweight debut will be delayed, yet again. Indeed, Frankie was set to face Cory Sandhagen in the co-main event of UFC Raleigh on January 25, 2020. And while the original plan was to still face Cory if he scored the Jung fight, it will now all depend on what goes down in Busan in a couple of weeks.

That said, cutting down to 135 pounds four weeks after fighting a tough Featherweight doesn’t seem like the easiest of tasks.

Sandhagen — who wasn’t too thrilled at the prospect of losing the Edgar fight — will now have to wait and see if UFC matchmakers can find him a suitable replacement next month should “The Answer” not be able to make a quick turnaround.

Edgar and Jung were originally set to face off in the main event of of UFC Fight Night 139 last November before Frankie was forced out of the matchup with an injury. Yair Rodriguez then stepped in to face “The Korean Zombie,” knocking him out with one second remaining in the five-round bout (highlights).

To see who else is fighting at UFC Busan click here.

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

Frankie Edgar is taking a tough short-notice fight in South Korea.

Following the unfortunate news of Brian Ortega’s torn ACL just before his much-anticipated bout with Chan Sung Jung at UFC Busan, the UFC had to scramble to find the Korean Zombie a new opponent. And there came up with a pretty good one.

Following an initial report by ESPN, MMA Junkie has confirmed that former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar will step in for Ortega and meet Jung in the headliner of the December 21st card. The UFC has not made the fight official as of yet.

Edgar had been scheduled to make his bantamweight debut against Cody Stamann next month, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen now.

The 38-year-old Edgar (23-7-1, 17-7-1 UFC) is coming off a featherweight title fight with Max Holloway where he dropped a split decision. Zombie (15-5, 5-2 UFC) is fresh off a big TKO win over Renato Moicano in June.

UFC Busan will air on ESPN+ on December 21st. Besides Edgar/Zombie, the card will feature a light heavyweight bout between Aleksandar Rakic and Volkan Oezdemir, and the return of the Korean Superboy Doo Ho Choi against Charles Jourdain.

Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images

“You do that to your body for a couple of years, you do some damage and it makes it harder to lose the weight afterwards.”

Conor McGregor will make his long awaited return to the cage against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, but many fans can’t wrap their heads around the weight class at which the fight will be contested.

McGregor has spent the majority of his career competing at featherweight and lightweight, but the former UFC two division champion will fight Cerrone at welterweight, where he is 1-1 with Nate Diaz.

This had led some to speculate that McGregor is eyeing a future ‘BMF’ title fight with top-three welterweight Jorge Masvidal, but Joe Rogan believes there’s a much simpler explanation: Conor is sick of cutting weight.

Speaking on a recent edition of the JRE MMA Show, podcast host Rogan said McGregor is fighting ‘Cowboy’ at 170 because he ‘tortured himself’ to make 145 in the past and his body can no longer endure the abuse.

“Because Conor doesn’t want to lose any weight,” Rogan said, per MMA Fighting. “I think that guy tortured himself to get down to 145 so hard – and when you look at what he looked like when he was on the scale, when he was flexing, he looked like a god damn zombie. It was horrible. So I think, whether he complains or not about that, nobody rides for free. You do that to your body for a couple of years, you do some damage and it makes it harder to lose the weight afterwards.

“So then he’s going up to 155. He’s obviously elite at 155, wins the title at 155, has the great rematch with Diaz at 170 and then comes back and fights Khabib at 155 and gets mauled. He has a fight with Cowboy, he’s really a 55er that can fight welterweight. That’s the right size for him versus, I don’t think Nate is fighting 155 any time in the future anymore.”

Speaking of the matchup, Rogan said he expects a great fight on Jan. 18.

“Look, it’s gonna be f*cking great,” Rogan said. “Whether you watch it on TV or you watch it live, it’s gonna be f*cking great. And if Conor can catch him early, it could be very interesting… [But] if Cowboy can use his distance – and he’s very good at doing it – and he can avoid that straight left because Conor’s got a piston of a left hand.”

UFC 246, which is expected to feature McGregor vs. Cowboy as the main event, is scheduled to take place next month, January 18 at T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.