Frankie Edgar on title shot against Conor McGregor: We’ve seen the Aldo show already

It wasn’t music to Frankie Edgar’s ears when he heard Conor McGregor is leaning toward Jose Aldo after a failed experiment at welterweight.

Now, Edgar again finds himself playing McGregor matchmaker, trying to convince the Irish featherweight champ and the UFC that he’s the best possible opponent.

“We’ve seen the Aldo show already,” Edgar said today on MMAjunkie Radio. “People watch fights because they’re interested in seeing who can win, and they don’t know the outcome. They’ve seen that already.”

At this past Saturday’s UFC 196, McGregor’s (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) ambition hit a wall when he was submitted by Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC) in a welterweight headliner. Fortunately for Edgar (20-4-1 MMA, 14-4-1 UFC), the Irish champ said he expects to move back to the division he recently conquered.

Less so, he said it would be hard not to give Aldo the first shot at him.

“I don’t know if (McGregor) feels more comfortable because he knows he just beat (Aldo) the way he did,” Edgar said. “I don’t want to say scared, or coward, or whatever, but I just think that I’m the fight that would prove the doubters wrong.

“Now he has doubters. He always had haters. Now, after a performance like that, he’s going to have even more haters. You want to prove those people wrong? Come in here and beat me. He does that, he’s going to silence those doubters. He goes and beats Aldo, he’s not going to silence anybody. People are still going to question him against me.”

Edgar has pushed for a fight against McGregor since the two came close to a booking this past July at UFC 189, when Aldo was forced from the card with an injury and the UFC sought a replacement.

Edgar watched Chad Mendes get the opportunity, then being the superior fighter in the promotion’s rankings. Since then, he’s waited as McGregor unified the featherweight title and announced a conquest to capture the lightweight belt. On the way, he knocked out Mendes to secure a promised title shot.

Of course, there could be another force driving McGregor on his current path, and it’s one Edgar can do very little about. Almost immediately after the featherweight champ was submitted, Aldo jumped on social media to call him a vulgar name. Even Edgar, who hasn’t been shy about goading his prospective opponent, was taken aback by that approach.

“I don’t know how someone can do that after losing the way they did,” he said. “I couldn’t do that. Even if I lost a war, I wouldn’t sit there and call the guy a (expletive). It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Aldo, of course, is trying to get a rematch with the rival that seized his belt just four months ago. It’s a fight UFC President Dana White said both he and Edgar were offered when UFC lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos was forced to withdraw from UFC 196.

Aldo, via his trainer, declined the bout, having only recently been cleared to fight after the medical suspension he was given in the wake of his knockout loss to McGregor. Edgar, meanwhile, was already injured, having suffered a tear to his pubic symphysis for which he’d been given two epidural shots prior to bouts with Urijah Faber and Mendes.

“Yeah, it’s not fun,” he said. “The shot is an inch above your junk, and it goes about six inches in. This time, something popped. It wasn’t just inflammation.”

Edgar said he’s buried the hatchet with White, who during an ESPN interview didn’t mention his injury in explaining why he turned down the bout.

“This situation happened when Jose did get hurt (prior to UFC 189), and I did step up on 15 days’ notice, and they didn’t give it to me,” Edgar said. “100 percent, if I wasn’t injured, I would have jumped all over this.

“(Dana) was like, ‘You’re just upset because you didn’t get the fight,’ and he’s kind of right. I was upset because I couldn’t fight. He did (paint a different picture), but I think he said in some other interviews, ‘He was injured.’ He told me, ‘I had three minutes. They asked me who was offered it, and that’s what I said.’ So whatever. I don’t take it to heart. It’s a business.

“He’s trying to promote Conor, he’s trying to promote the fight, trying to promote that Nate’s the man, and these other guys aren’t. I get it. I was just disappointed because I’ve been a company guy – I’ve been willing to step up on many occasions, and I just felt like I was slighted a little bit. But all in the past.”

If Edgar had to predict how the future plays out for he and McGregor, he would say they’re fighting at UFC 200. But as ever, the decision is ultimately not in his hands.

Edgar continues to appeal to the businessman in McGregor, which he rightfully reads as the one of the champ’s strongest motivators.

“He wants the biggest fights,” Edgar said. “That’s going to be one of the biggest weekends, whether he’s there or not. You add him, it’s going to be even bigger.”

But then there are other businessmen to which he must appeal. To the UFC brass, he’s hoping a five-fight winning streak, fan support and maybe just simple fairness, should direct their decision.

“I think I’ve been doing the right thing by the UFC from Day One,” Edgar said. “I’m hoping they throw me a bone. I think they should. I think the fans know they should.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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