Frankie Edgar will be getting an immediate title shot when he drops to featherweight after all.
Edgar has replaced Erik Koch in the UFC 153 main event and will face Jose Aldo, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani has confirmed. USA Today was the first to break the news.
Koch suffered a knee injury recently and was forced to withdraw from the fight, according to Helwani.
Edgar (14-3-1) has lost his past two fights to UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson. He was expected to make his featherweight debut later this year before the injury to Koch.
Koch apologized to his fans on Twitter, stating “I’m sorry guys this has been one crazy year for me deff a hard one, I just wanna thank all of you guys for the support means the world to me.”
Aldo (21-1), who has won 14 straight fights, was critical of former UFC champion Edgar recently in an interview with Tatame.
“He said he wants to drop to featherweight, so I’m hoping he does that to end this story,” Aldo told Tatame.com. “He’s welcome here so that we can shut him off and he goes to the lightweight or bantamweight classes.”
UFC 153 is scheduled for Oct. 13 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.