Cub Swanson gives his take on whether opponent Frankie Edgar is fighting too soon after KO loss

On March 3, in the co-main event of UFC 222, former UFC lightweight champion and longtime featherweight contender Frankie Edgar experienced the first knockout loss of his illustrious career, succumbing to a first-round Brian Ortega uppercut. While fighters typically take a nice, long break after being knocked out, Edgar will do no such thing. Instead, he’ll return to action tomorrow night, when he rematches the hard-hitting Cub Swanson in the co-main event of UFC Atlantic City.

Speaking on The TSN MMA Show. this week, Swanson gave his take on whether it might be too soon for Edgar’s comeback. While this thought has apparently crossed his mind, he’s determined to prepare for the best Frankie Edgar yet.

“It’s very possible, yes,” Swanson said, when asked if Edgar’s turnaround is too abrupt (transcribed by Aaron Bronsteter for TSN.com). “I don’t want to put that on it and think that myself going into the fight, because I think that would be a mistake for myself. It is possible that he’s taking the fight too soon, but I have to go in there thinking that it’s going to be the best Frankie Edgar that we’ve seen and I’m expecting that.”

Swanson is hoping the fans will share his view of the situation.

“If I get that big win and people are just going to be saying, ‘Oh, well he came back too soon’ and maybe downplay my skills out there, so hopefully they won’t read too much into it and expect the best Frankie like I do.”

Whatever the case, Swanson is determined to avenge his previous loss to Edgar.

“He wanted to get back in there and make it right after his loss and he wanted to fight in his hometown and I think they were having trouble finding an opponent, so they reached out to me,” said Swanson. “For me, it’s been about 30,000 hours since we fought before and it’s always been painful for me to think about, so when they offered it to me, I was like ‘hell yeah’. I want this fight back, I know I can beat him, I know I can do better and I want to show everybody.”

Do you think Frankie Edgar is returning to action too quickly?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/20/2018.