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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) asked former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who also contended for the title at 145 pounds, to put his bantamweight drop on hold to replace the injured Brian Ortega at the UFC Busan event later this month in South Korea.
That would leave current opponent, Cory Sandhagen, without a date to the big dance.
“It’s not cool of Frankie to do something like that,” Sandhagen told Ariel Helwani. “I don’t know if money got involved or what, but I thought this guy wanted to have another run at a belt and to call himself the best in the world. I thought that’s the kind of fighter Frankie was. It’s what he said he wanted.”
Edgar and Sandhagen were previously paired off at the UFC Fight Night 166 event on Sat., Jan. 25, 2020, inside PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it’s important to note that no changes have been made official at this time.
That didn’t stop Sandhagen from blasting Edgar.
“It’s sad that his values got mixed somewhere and now he’s taking a fight that isn’t going to get him within arm’s reach of a title, like the fight against me would,” he said. “The UFC is trying to do their jobs and save a huge card, which I get, but they’re also losing a shot at an opportunity to turn a young, new face into a star and the Raleigh fans are going to be pretty bummed too.”
Ortega tore his ACL and is expected to be on the bench for the next few months and since Chan Sung Jung is from South Korea, the promotion is likely trying its hardest to keep him atop the card, in any capacity.
Still lots of pieces to this multi-weight puzzle.