Prior to McGregor’s announcement that he’s moving up the division and face Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title belt this coming UFC 197, Frankie Edgar was certain that the UFC will not only allow McGregor to call the shots on his career, but they might actually agree to go against other MMA fighters first, before dealing with him.
“Yeah, from what I think, yeah, [McGregor]’s calling the shots. I don’t think it matters with Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta]. Really, I don’t think I’m the best fight that they want…I don’t think they want it either. So I’ve got all three of them against me,” Edgar said during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.
After winning over Chad Mendes last December at the TUF 22 Finale, Edgar was told by the MMA promotion company that he will be getting a shot at the featherweight title right away. That was all before McGregor managed to knock out longtime reigning champ, Jose Aldo, and ultimately decided to move up the division to get the next title belt.
Now that McGregor got what he wanted and was able to move into the lightweight division, Edgar was left out of place and had no choice but to either wait for McGregor to go back to the featherweight, or prepare for a possible title fight. It also looks like the UFC might actually break the tradition, and let McGregor retain his featherweight title while fighting for the lightweight belt. However, Edgar believes that there’s no reason for McGregor to go up the division right away as McGregor still has to finish one more thing- to go against him.
With these sudden turn of events, Edgar feels there is something fishy going on.
“I remember when [the UFC] were trying to get me to go down to 145 when I was the 155-pound champion. They said I have to let go of the belt to do that,” Edgar said.
Seeing that the situation is not really gearing towards his favor, Edgar admits he’s not sure if he would be willing to wait until UFC 200 to get into the cage again if he was asked to.
“Some people are telling me to wait, but I’m going to wait so they can take it away from me again? I don’t think I can do that. Like you said, I’ve got a family to feed. This window’s closing. We all know this isn’t a long career. I’m 34. I feel great, I feel young. I feel like I’m getting better, but time wins over everybody eventually, so I feel like I’m just missing out on opportunities left and right,” he said.
One thing that Edgar is proud of is his ‘blueprint’ to win over McGregor. He even went on saying that he is the worst possible MMA fighter to get matched up with McGregor inside the cage.
“Yeah, I do [think I have the blueprint]. I think you seen shades of it with Chad, and I’m definitely a different fighter than Chad, I can do some of the things he can’t. And, it’s not going to be an easy fight. I mean, all fights are hard. But, yeah, I think I’m the worst match-up for McGregor. I think he knows it, I think you know it, I think the UFC knows it. I just need that chance to get my hands on him. That’s what I want. Am I going to get it? I f*cking doubt it. I was deflated man. I was sky high one day, and the next day it was literally like someone rained on my parade. It was eating at me. I just fought one of the best fights of my life [and I’m thinking] I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I should be going home riding high right now, and I just wasn’t. And that’s unfortunate. You only have so many of those moments in this career for it to kind of get taking away from you the next day and stuff,” Edgar concluded.