UFC Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar will be coming into UFC 136 with a chip on his shoulder–but not because of his opponent.
Set to face challenger Gray Maynard on Oct. 8 for the third time, Edgar looks to gain respect as the champion by staying on his winning ways and holding onto to the title for as long as possible.
“Respect’s coming man, it’s going to keep growing the better I do and the longer I keep this belt,” Edgar told Bleacher Report at the UFC 136 media conference call on Friday. “I try to come into every fight with a chip on my shoulder, not for any reason, I’m eager to win and having that chip on your shoulder helps you do so.”
Edgar and Maynard last squared off at UFC 125 in January, fighting to a draw in an exciting back and forth contest that took Fight of the Night honors.
The two lightweights previously faced each other in 2008, with Maynard taking the unanimous decision. This has been Edgar’s only professional loss to date.
Edgar does not seem put off having to prepare for the same fighter again, a situation he has been in before. Edgar previously faced former UFC Lightweight champion BJ Penn back-to-back in 2010, taking and defending the title at UFC 112 and UFC 118 respectively.
“For myself, it is a unique position to be training for a guy this long,” Edgar said. “I fought BJ back to back and had two back to back training camps for him so, I’m training for two guys the past two years, I guess I’m kind of used to it.”
What poses a problem to the champion is not staying motivated for the same opponent, but coming up with the right strategy to bring into the fight.
“The challenge is coming up with another game plan, another series of attacks and what not,” Edgar said. “It benefits too because he’s fresh on your mind, you have a lot of situations to base your training camp off of.”
The final act of the Edgar-Maynard trilogy was scheduled to take place at UFC 130 in May. However, injuries to both Edgar and Maynard has postponed the bout until now. Edgar seems ready to go, as the injury has not staved greatly affected his training going into next Saturday’s fight.
“I had to take some time off, rehab and everything to take care of my back, but I’ve pretty much had a full training camp before I had gotten hurt so it’s almost like I didn’t really miss a beat,” Edgar said. “I took the time off I needed to take off and then got right back to it.”
Now healthy and ready to take on Maynard, Edgar believes that he will be the best he’s every been, as he constantly strives to improve his game.
“I’ve just been improving on my overall skills, my biggest thing between every fight is trying to become a better fighter than I was my last time out and I believe I accomplish that,” Edgar said. “So as long as I can put it together things will go my way.”
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