Edgar: Interim Title Fight Is Just A No. 1 Contenders Bout

Earlier in June, was news broke that Jose Aldo suffered a rib injury and was possibly going to be pulled from the “UFC 189” main-event. It didn’t take long for fighters to throw their name in the mix and get a big payday for fighting McGregor on July 11th.

In reality, if anybody was going to replace an injured Aldo it was going to be #1 ranked featherweight Chad Mendes or #2 ranked Frankie Edgar. Even though the two have already failed dethroning Aldo, they have more than earned another shot at the gold.

After it was made official that Chad Mendes would be facing Conor McGregor for the interim UFC Featherweight Championship on the PPV’s new main-event, Edgar felt snubbed and looked over once again.

“Early on when I heard that [Aldo] was injured we threw our hat in and said, you know, we would be willing to step in,” Edgar told Inside MMA. “They decided to go with Chad for that role. I think the explanation was that he was the number 1 contender, I was 2 at the time. You know those are kind of finicky the rankings. I think after he got the nod I think the new rankings came out and I was number 1 and neither of us fought.”

In the eyes of Edgar, Jose Aldo is still the true champion of the featherweight division. He doesn’t view this upcoming bout as a interim title match, but rather a top contender’s fight. “This is really not an interim title, it’s really more a number one contender fight. The winner gets to fight Aldo when he’s healthy. With Aldo you just don’t know when he’s going to be healthy so maybe I can get a fight with one of them, the winner, before that. I think a lot of things gotta kind of come together and see how they pan out and take it from there.”

What do you think? Should whoever wins in the UFC 189 main event go in the history books as a champion? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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