Frankie Edgar
Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (14-3-1) has stepped up to the plate as a replacement for an injured Erik Koch, and will make his featherweight debut versus 145-lbs title holder Jose Aldo next month in Brazil.
The bout marks the first “super fight” booked by the UFC that fans and critics have been asking for.
Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz tells Sherdog.com Radio that is one of the reasons (full interview at 8:52) his fighter took the fight, to give the fans the “super fight” they’ve been wanting.
“Frankie fought B.J. Penn two times,” Abdel-Aziz explained. “Gray Maynard. He fought Ben Henderson, Sean Sherk. These are all big fights. These guys are all great champions or most of those guys were champions. We definitely think Jose Aldo’s a great champion also, but this is something Frankie’s been training for all his life. Frankie had Jose Aldo on the radar for a while. Frankie had been training for Aldo for a while.”
“Honestly, Frankie always looks for a big fight,” Abdel-Aziz said. “At this point in Frankie’s career, Frankie wants to fight the best. He was probably going to fight 145 one time and fight Aldo. … He said you know what? The UFC likes it, I like it. The fans want a superfight. Many superfights have been talked about, but nobody’s stepping up to the plate. Frankie said, ‘I’ll step to the plate and I’m going to give the fans what they want.’”
Edgar meets Aldo on October 13, 2012 in the main event of UFC 153 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.