Cub Swanson: If I beat Frankie Edgar, I've been promised UFC title shot

UFC featherweight contender Cub Swanson and Conor McGregor had two very different weekends.

Swanson, ranked No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, was at home and watching UFC 179, where champion and No. 1-ranked 145-pounder Jose Aldo defeated No. 2 Chad Mendes for a second time.

No. 8, Conor McGregor, meanwhile, was in Rio de Janeiro for the event and enjoying the high life with UFC President Dana White.

Although both fighters have upcoming fights, and though White has said McGregor (16-2 MMA, 4-0 UFC) will get a title if he beats Dennis Siver (22-9 MMA, 11-6 UFC) in their recently announced UFC Fight Night 59 headliner on Jan. 18, it appears Swanson has received a similar promise (though it’s not clear who would get it first).

As he wrote on Twitter:

Swanson (21-5 MMA, 6-1 UFC) fights former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (17-4-1 MMA, 11-4-1 UFC) in the headliner of next month’s UFC Fight Night 57 event, which takes place Nov. 22 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

If victorious in the FOX Sports 1-televised main event, Swanson will notch his seventh straight UFC victory. Four of his recent six wins have come via knockout, and he’s picked up “Fight of the Night” bonuses in his past two bouts. However, the one strike against him has been his eight-second loss to Aldo at WEC 41 in 2009.

However, earlier this month, Swanson recently told MMAjunkie Radio he actually opted to fight Edgar instead of waiting on the sidelines for a promised title shot:

“I sat out a whole year waiting for a big fight, and I got Jeremy Stephens,” he said. “It was a tough fight, but he wasn’t very high in the rankings.

“I was kind of upset that they made me wait that long, so this time around, they wanted me to wait again, and they said I was getting next title shot, just to sit out and wait. I figured I’m in my prime now, I can’t be sitting out years at a time for one fight.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 57, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Cub Swanson)