A couple of days ago, the UFC broke the news that the next challenger to Jose Aldo’s UFC Featherweight crown will be Frankie Edgar. The fight is one fans have been dreaming about for the past two years—when Edgar was the lightweight champion and Aldo wrecking any title challenger put in his path.
Now this fight will likely be a very entertaining fight, and there will be loads of breakdowns of technique in preparation for their Feb. 2013 clash.
But where is all the negative backlash from MMA fans and fighters?
When it was announced Chael Sonnen would be facing Jon Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight strap, fans went into a near riot on the computers. This despite the same community shunning Jones only weeks earlier for not facing Sonnen on eight days notice.
Now Edgar gets a title shot in a division he’s never competed in and coming off two straight losses. His last two fights with Gray Maynard could also very easily be losses, as Maynard did everything but hit Edgar with an RPG to try and finish the fight.
I can already hear all the Edgar fans out there: “But his first fight with Benson Henderson was close and he won the second fight.” It doesn’t matter if you think he won or didn’t, the fact remains his official record says he lost both at UFC 144 and UFC 150.
That’s two losses to go along with one win and a draw in his last four fights. Not exactly what one would call a solid resume for a title challenger. Especially given that Edgar has never stepped onto the scales to weigh in or faced a single fighter at 145 pounds.
At least Sonnen was at .500, with his two losses coming to possibly the best fighter in the history of MMA. Sandwiched between the two losses were victories over top contenders like Michael Bisping and Brian Stann.
People are ready to excommunicate Sonnen from the MMA community due to him “talking his way into a title shot” but there’s not one whimper about a guy with back-to-back losses getting an automatic title shot? Even Sonnen‘s own teammate had harsh words for the situation at 205 pounds.
“… Giving him that fight [right] now degrades the sport of MMA.”
That was Sonnen‘s teammate Dan Henderson describing how he felt about Sonnen receiving the next title shot. I wonder what a guy coming off two losses and entering a new weight division for the first time ever does to the sport of MMA?
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