After Frankie Edgar earned a unanimous decision over Charles Oliveira in July of 2013, many fans felt like the little guy from Toms River, New Jersey might be a fight away from getting back into the title hunt. He had recently lost a unanimous decision to featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo in a closely contested bout. Fans of The Answer assumed that his next booking would be a marquee matchup with a top contender, and one that would launch Edgar right back into the octagon with Aldo.
Then the UFC announced that Frankie Edgar would be facing off against B.J. Penn after a stint of coaching against each other on The Ultimate Fighter. In a move that baffled fans, Edgar had done the “company man” move and given Dana White a grudge-match style matchup, with the promise that Penn would get the chance to redeem himself for two previous losses at the hands of Edgar, both coming with the lightweight title on the line. The move sidelined Edgar for a year, which culminated with an absolute destruction of B.J. Penn that would send The Prodigy into retirement, (not permanently, as we have now learned). Edgar had given the UFC an entire year of his career for a meaningless fight, but now it was time to get back to business.
Four months later, Edgar was back in the cage and dominating a man that many had picked to defeat him in Cub Swanson, finishing Swanson in the closing seconds of the fight with a neck-crank submission. Then Edgar moved on to Urijah Faber, the former WEC champion and perpetual UFC contender. Again, Edgar won in controlling fashion while sustaining little damage and at times, making the seasoned veteran Faber look confused and out of sorts. Most recently, The Answer knocked out Chad Mendes in the very first round of their number 1 vs number 2 contender matchup. Immediately after, Edgar called for a title shot, and was promised as much by UFC president Dana White. However, the following night, after Conor McGregor knocked Jose Aldo out in a mere 13 seconds, the wheels began to turn against Edgar. McGregor has leveraged his way into a title fight at lightweight against Raphael dos Anjos, leaving the featherweight title picture at a stand-still and Frankie Edgar in no-mans land.
Being that nothing is guaranteed in the UFC, Edgar might be best served to continue riding the hot streak that he is currently on, attempt to avenge a loss against Jose Aldo and cement himself as the only man available to challenge for the featherweight strap when McGregor makes is return to 145 pounds. Fighters fight, and Frankie Edgar is a fighter through and through. The man is a warrior with intangibles that perhaps no fighter on the UFC roster can match. Fighters like Frankie Edgar don’t sit idle, they stay busy and continue to put on shows for their fans. This is the very thing that made me a fan of The Answer. Watching him dig deep and come back from the edge of consciousness against Gray Maynard, only to knock The Bully out. Watching him use his superior cardio, footwork and will to control bigger and stronger opponents. These are the things that we love about Frankie Edgar. We love to see him compete because he is a natural competitor. When fighters like Edgar are on a streak, we want to see them keep moving, rather than sitting by and falling into the shadows while some up and comer with a bigger mouth could potentially take the title shot that they earned. If history has shown us anything, it is that Dana White and the UFC will ride the hot hand and put the most desirable, if not the most deserving, fighter in the big fights. We all want to see Edgar stay active…unless he gets caught or outpointed.
As we all know, it doesn’t take much more than a split-second to get caught and put away when you are wearing four ounce gloves. We have seen countless examples of fights ending abruptly, or heavily favored fighters getting flash KOed. The fans and the fighters may know that the result is not indicative of the abilities of the fighters, but that is the fighting game. The best fighter doesn’t always win, and it can all be over with a single punch. These are the things that worry the fans of Frankie Edgar, and quite frankly should worry the fans of MMA. The Frankie Edgar-Conor McGregor matchup is what every fight fan wants to see. Can Edgar really neutralize McGregor, take him down, hold him down, beat him up and wear him out? Or will McGregor make the final skeptics into believers? If Edgar takes a fight other than a title matchup against McGregor, we may never get to find out. As a fan, I have little doubt in the ability of Edgar against anyone in the division, but I am keenly aware that Jose Aldo is a world-class fighter and the only logical match-up for Edgar other than McGregor. Sure, Edgar could even the score with Aldo and cement his place at the top of the heap, (something that he has already done, in my opinion) with a win over Aldo. But he could also lose, which, as Aldo can attest to, is something that only requires one misstep. We have seen Edgar come back to attempt to avenge a loss before, which resulted in second (and controversial) loss to Benson Henderson. But we have also seen him succeed in avenging a loss, as was the case against Maynard.
So, where does a fighter like Edgar go? He was born for competition, lives for the challenge and can round and round with any fighter in the division, so of course I’d love to see him in action sooner rather than later. But that is just the selfish fan speaking. Frankie Edgar has to do what is right for him. He has to demand the very thing that he has earned, and if that means having to starve his fans for a while to get that prize, so be it. It is Edgar’s career, and he deserves to get the shot that he has earned, even if he has to wait.
Main Photo: LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 11: Frankie Edgar (left) is declared the winner over Chad Mendes (right) in their featherweight bout during the TUF Finale event inside The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on December 11, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
