Come Saturday, at UFC Vegas 7, Frankie Edgar will finally fight in his new home at bantamweight.
Even Edgar, who won gold at lightweight and contested for it at featherweight, admits his move down to 135lbs has been a long time coming. “I made my decision last summer that I was going to go down to bantamweight,” he noted at Wednesday’s media day.
Then came a short-notice featherweight fight against The Korean Zombie, back in December. A couple of bookings against current opponent Pedro Munhoz also fell through. Finally, this Saturday, Edgar arrives, in what could be the last leg of his storied mixed martial arts journey.
The weight cut, he told Cageside Press, is “going good. It really seems similar to making 45. I don’t anticipate any problems. I’m not quite down there yet, but it’s going as smooth as you can possibly go.”
“I just started out a little bit sooner than I usually do,” Edgar said of his preparation to make 135lbs. That, and using the UFC PI were the key differences in shedding the extra 10lbs.
The bout with Munhoz being pushed back also gave him more time to prepare. Munhoz had been diagnosed with COVID-19. While other names popped up, Frankie Edgar remained focused.
“A lot of people were calling my name, but I wanted to fight Pedro. I was getting ready for Pedro,” Edgar said. “I heard he wasn’t very sick either, asymptomatic possibly. So I thought that was the best thing to do.”
As to what makes Munhoz so dangerous, Edgar observed that “he’s got heavy, heavy hands. He’s got a great chin, hard to take down, and a superb submission game. He’s really well-rounded, he’s not an easy opponent. Being number five, he’s the perfect guy I want to fight.”
As to where a win over the highly-ranked bantamweight puts him, “Winning has a way of taking care of things,” opined Edgar. “If I can do that, anything’s possible. What I’ve done in my career, I’m always knocking on the door, I’m always having opportunities presented to me. If it does come up, of course I’m jumping at it.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 7 media day press scrum with Frankie Edgar above. The event takes place Saturday, August 22 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
