Jose Aldo feels Frankie Edgar hasn’t evolved as a fighter and that he will beat him again in their rematch at UFC 200.
At UFC 200, former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo will step into the Octagon against Frankie Edgar for the second time. The Brazilian muay thai specialist spoiled Edgar’s featherweight debut three years ago at UFC 156, and he feels that the former 145-pound champion hasn’t evolved a bit since then.
“I don’t see evolution in him. He has adapted to the division, but I don’t see an evolution,” Aldo said in a recent media scrum in Rio de Janeiro. “He continues doing the same game, same movement. I respect him, but I’m capable of getting there and winning.”
In their first encounter, Edgar took Aldo to a decision. And although the judges called it a relatively decisive 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 for the Brazilian, Edgar criticized multiple times that it should have been him that won the fight. An opinion that doesn’t sit well with Aldo.
“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? No way,” he said. “I haven’t watched it anymore because I know I easily won that. I won that only with my left arm. I don’t know where he saw that. You can say he won the fifth round and that’s it, but I won the other four. I won, no doubt.”
On July 9, Aldo and Edgar will square off again at UFC 200 in the newly built T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. This time it will be for the interim featherweight championship, since the original belt is still being held by Conor McGregor, who will headline the event with a welterweight rematch against Nate Diaz.