Well, well, well. Despite initial reports that former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar would have to earn his title shot after announcing his move down to the featherweight division recently, it turns out that he’s now going to be fighting Jose Aldo for the belt immediately.
The decision came after Aldo’s originally scheduled opponent Erik Koch had to pull out due to an undisclosed injury, and Edgar was the obvious choice as his replacement.
Koch’s loss is the UFC’s gain as Aldo Vs Edgar is a dream fight and after the disappointment of having to cancel UFC 151 it’s the kind of match-up that can bring back the feel-good-factor to the company.
Aldo is the current dominant force at 145lbs, considered to be one of the world’s elite pound-for-pound fighters thanks to a fourteen fight winning streak that’s saw him successfully claim and defend both the WEC and UFC featherweight titles on multiple occasions.
In Edgar he faces his toughest test yet. ‘The Answer’ proved to be a force to be reckoned with at lightweight, defeating a legend in BJ Penn to win the title, then defeating him again to prove it was no fluke. Edgar then continued to defend his belt over two classic encounters with Gray Maynard.
Of course he’s since come undone, losing two close decisions to Ben Henderson, which is the only reason I stop just short of calling this new match-up a bonafide ‘superfight’, but nonetheless he’s still an elite fighter and given that he was widely believed to be undersized for the weight class, many believe that we’ll see an even better version of Edgar in the 145lb division.
UFC 153 takes place on October 13th in Rio, Brazil and the new headliner enhances what was already a strong line-up with fights like Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson vs Glover Teixeira, Jon Fitch Vs Erick Silva and Damien Maia Vs Rick Story also featuring on the main card.
