Frankie Edgar Moving to Featherweight, Agrees to Fight Jose Aldo at UFC 153 with Koch Injured

The injury bug takes no prisoners.

UFC 153 took the hit on Thursday when Erik Koch fell out of his main event challenge of UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo due to an undisclosed injury.

While many events take a pretty big hit when a main eventer drops out – UFC 151 was recently cancelled due to just such a scenario – sometimes things work out for the better.

Koch, a worthy contender, carried little name value into the match-up with Aldo, but the UFC brass has already replaced him with former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Edgar’s manager, Ali Abdel-Aziz of Dominance MMA, confirmed the news to MMAWeekly.com.

Edgar recently announced that he was dropping down to the 145-pound division, but expected that he would have to fight at least once or twice before getting a shot at the champ.

When the UFC comes calling with a title shot in hand, however, it makes for a difficult offer to pass up.

The fight offers Edgar more than the opportunity to jump right back into the championship mix after recently failing to regain the lightweight belt from Benson Henderson at UFC 150. It also offers him a spot in UFC history.

BJ Penn and UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, thus far, are the only two fighters to ever capture belts in two different UFC weight classes. Edgar could become the third if he were to defeat Aldo.

Edgar and Aldo will square off in the UFC 153 main event on Oct. 13 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The news of Koch’s injury and Edgar stepping in was first reported by USA Today.

Stay tuned to MMAWeekly.com for more UFC 153 news and updates.