After years of ignoring frequent suggestions to move to featherweight, former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar now says the shift to a lighter weight class is no doubt in his future. Now, it’s just a matter of time. He’ll try to ward it off as long as possible after successfully lobbying for a rematch with Ben Henderson, but at some point, he says, he’s moving to featherweight.
“We’ll see what the future holds, but I think it’s inevitable that I’ll eventually get down there,” he said during a recent press event in Atlanta. “I just don’t know when.”
Edgar might have made the move if he hadn’t been granted the rematch. Edgar recently met with UFC president Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta at a New York hamburger restaurant, where he convinced them he was worthy of a second opportunity to beat Henderson.
“I was set on getting this belt back,” he said. “We don’t know what the future holds, but I didn’t want to go down on those terms.”
Edgar said he is hoping that the championship fight will get scheduled for August or September, but White said as of now there was no timetable in place.
White had promised that if Edgar chose to drop to 145, he would get an immediate title match with current champ Jose Aldo. According to Edgar, fighting Aldo is still a targeted goal. The only questions are where and when.
“I’m all about fighting big fights, and fighting the best guys, and Jose Aldo’s one of them,” he said. “We’ll see where it’s at, whether it’s at 145 or 155.”
If Edgar’s the champ, maybe he can get Aldo to come to him. If not, he might be the one moving to a newer, smaller neighborhood. That would be welcome news to White, who has repeatedly voiced a preference of Edgar dropping to the lighter weight class.
“He stressed that he thinks for the longevity of my career, 145 would be better,” Edgar said. “I told him I could see what points he was talking about, but right now I wanted the rematch, so he granted it.”
Mark it down as another case of Edgar’s resilience winning out.