Frankie Edgar and his management team are clearly looking at the silver lining of his interim title fight at UFC 200.
Edgar (20-4-1 MMA, 14-4-1 UFC), a former lightweight champion who’s emerged as a top featherweight contender with is current five-fight winning streak, rematches ex-champ Jose Aldo (25-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) at UFC 200, as officials announced on Wednesday.
The pay-per-view bout, which takes place July 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, comes with some notable stakes. Aldo, who’s ranked No. 2 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, meets No. 3-ranked Edgar for an interim 145-pound title.
It’s not the official featherweight belt – reigning champ Conor McGregor (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is again moving up to welterweight to try to avenge a UFC 196 non-title loss to Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC) in UFC 200’s headliner – but for Edgar, his interim title fight is the next best thing to fighting McGregor. After all, he gets a chance to avenge his narrow 2013 title loss to then-champ Aldo.
“Frankie Edgar is happy about this fight,” Edgar’s manager, Ali Abdel-Aziz, told MMAjunkie on Wednesday. “Frankie will avenge his loss to Aldo and will kill two birds with one stone.”
In other words, he can right a wrong against Aldo and also set up a champion-vs.-champion fight with McGregor.
“After that, Conor will have nowhere to go,” Abdel-Aziz said. “He’ll be trapped. He won’t have any more excuses.”
Edgar seemed equally stoked, at least on social media (via Instagram):
Mission Search and Destroy July 9th UFC 200. Don't matter who it is. I'm coming!! #IronArmy #Fe
A photo posted by Frankie Edgar (@frankieedgar) on
“Be happy about this,” Abdel-Aziz said. “Frankie is happy. It’s going to be a great night and a great fight.”
For more on UFC 200, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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