There are some fight fans who still do not understand why Frankie Edgar took his next fight.
UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was forced to pull out of his next title defense against the former UFC lightweight champion at UFC 222 due to injury.
As a result of this fight being scrapped, the UFC had to make some changes to that fight card. Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya in a female featherweight title bout will serve as the headliner.
Now, Edgar is slated to take on fellow top contender Brian Ortega at the upcoming pay-per-view event in the co-main event.
Edgar recently did an interview with MMAJunkie during fight week, and during that interview, he explained once again why he decided to take this fight.
“I like things the hard way, I guess,” Edgar told MMAjunkie. “Nothing comes easy. I’m OK with that. If I think I’m the best guy, I should be able to beat anybody. … I haven’t fought since May. It’s just too long to wait. In December, I pretty much got to the end of the training camp (before I pulled out of UFC 218 against Holloway) and didn’t get that release.
“I always tell people, ‘The week after your fight is just a very good time.’ You get to release, relax, unwind mentally – everything. I didn’t get that. Here we are, four weeks away from it, I didn’t want to have to go through that again. So let’s just get one out of the way and take it from there.”
“It just shows the type of person I am, the type of fighter I am,” Edgar said. “I don’t know if you want to call it like ‘an old school guy’ or what, but you’ve got to go out there, you’ve got to perform in order to get what you want. I’m willing to put my skills on the line and put my heart on the line just to say I’m the best and prove that I can achieve this title.”
UFC 222 is set to take place on Saturday, March 3, 2018, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass 6:30 p.m. ET.
“You always have to play it safe no matter who you’re fighting,” Edgar said. “I don’t fight any easy guys. I haven’t maybe ever in the UFC. To me, you’ve always got to be safe. But I don’t want to have my foot on the brake at all. My foot is going to be on the gas, and I’m going to be smart at everything.”
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