With Conor McGregor’s next fight expected to be a rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200, it means McGregor will not be dropping back to featherweight to defend that division’s title. That’s not going to sit well with Jose Aldo or Frankie Edgar, both of whom had been campaigning for that title fight at UFC 200.
While Aldo and McGregor themselves haven’t chimed in, given there’s been no official announcement from the UFC, but Edgar’s manager Ali Abdelaziz went off on McGregor in a post to Instagram on Friday.
“When history speaks for itself, Frankie Edgar will go down as the guy who fought anyone at any weight, any time, and anywhere,” Abdelaziz wrote. “But when history speaks for [Conor McGregor] he was a [UFC] champion who hand picked his opponents and chose a guys (sic) out of shape to fight him and he ducked Frankie. Every media member I talked to, a majority of the fans wants to see Edgar vs. Mcgregor but Conor’s coaches since he lost to Nate Diaz for every interview they talk about everyone else except for Frankie.”
“At this point [I’m] blaming the UFC for not making this fight happen because I think it’s really up to them and they can make Conor fight Frankie. [I’m] done with this. It’s been a miserable last [four] months talking and negotiating getting this fight to happen but now I realize the only person who needs to step up and say he wants to fight Frankie is Conor. But I don’t believe he wants to because he and everyone else knows that Frankie would whoop his ass. I have [zero] respect for a champion who ducks contenders and that’s that.”
Penick’s Analysis: McGregor choosing not to come back to the featherweight division for a second straight fight means the UFC almost has to book an Interim Title fight between Edgar and Aldo. The frustrations from the Aldo and Edgar camps is absolutely understandable, and for Edgar especially he has to feel like McGregor’s simply avoiding him. Aldo has less of a cause for complaint given he’s been beat by McGregor, but even then he deserves a rematch of his own while Edgar deserves his crack at the title. It’s a crappy spot for the 145 lb. field with McGregor doing his own thing.
[Frankie Edgar art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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