Frankie Edgar discusses taking fight against Korean Zombie, still has plans for bantamweight
After Brian Ortega had to withdraw from the UFC Busan main event due to an ACL injury, former lightweight champion and featherweight title challenger Frankie Edgar answered the call. It was announced last week that Edgar would step in to face Korean Zombie in the main event at UFC Busan which is set for December 21, in South Korea.
The news of Edgar stepping in came as a surprise as he was schedule to make his bantamweight division debut and face Cory Sandhagen at UFC Raleigh in January, but now that move down is on hold. Now that the UFC has made the Edgar vs Korean Zombie fight official, Sandhagen is left without an opponent for his scheduled fight in January.
Many wondered why Edgar decided to step in and face Korean Zombie at featherweight while he was preparing to make his bantamweight debut, and Edgar finally gave some answers on Tuesday. During an appearance on The Luke Thomas Show on Sirius XM, Edgar explained his decision to step in and take the fight.
🔊 @FrankieEdgar explains why he took the fight against 'The Korean Zombie' at #UFCSouthKorea and his future plans for the drop to bantamweight #TLTS@lthomasnews
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/1a65iEt3kw— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) December 11, 2019
“I’ve been trying to get a fight since Novemeber. I thought I was going to be on the MSG card, I kind of was in camp for a little bit for that and then it fell through, then I was going to be on the December card that’s coming up, and that kind of fell through. So when this opportunity came up, I wanted to get a fight. In ’18 I only fought once and I didn’t want that to happen again for this year so I jumped at the opportunity.”
While his plans to move down to bantamweight are put on hold for now, Edgar told Luke Thomas that he still plans to get down to the 135-pound division eventually, saying it is a priority of his to drop down.
“I’ll get there eventually, just a little hiccup along the way. I’m really not that heavy, when I found out I was fight [Korean Zombie], I kind of had to gain a little bit of weight for this one. I think I need to be at [135] in the future.”
A win over Korean Zombie in the featherweight division could mean Edgar sticks around depending on what the UFC were to offer him following the fight and he said he believes winning could lead to good things for him.
“Winning only does good things. I don’t think I’ll get a title shot right away at [145], if I do win just based off one win, especially Max wins his fight. I don’t know if they’re going to put me in a title fight right away after fighting this past summer for a title. I’m not really expecting to fight for a title at [145]. Would I turn it down? Absolutely not.
Edgar would go on to say that if he wasn’t offered a title fight opportunity at featherweight, he’ll go back to shifting his focus on making his bantamweight debut.
“I’ll probably go back down to [135], well not back, but go down to [135]. I mean listen, there’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ I mean, who knows? I didn’t know I was going to be fighting in two weeks, I’m pretty much game for anything but I do think that 135 will be my future.”
There’s been no update to Edgar’s bantamweight opponent Cory Sandhagen getting his own replacement opponent, but one thing is certain, Frankie Edgar is still focused on becoming a part of the bantamweight division.
