Eyebrows were raised recently when Frankie Edgar agreed to a rematch with Cub Swanson that will take place less than two months after he suffered the first knockout loss of his career against Brian Ortega at UFC 222.
The 36-year-old is well aware that many people think he’s coming back too quickly after such a tough defeat, but Edgar sees it differently.
“I’m excited to get in there,” Edgar said on ‘The MMA Hour’ show this week. “I know I’m getting flak from people and you guys, obviously on whether I’m taking this fight too soon or not, and that’s fine. I [expected] it and I know what I’m putting on the line here, and I feel comfortable doing it, so I’m ready to go prove people wrong here.”
“I’m the one in there. I’m the one putting it on the line, and there’s nothing like getting in there and getting a win to erase that last loss. And again, it’ll never erase it, but at least it’ll kinda help deal with that stink, and like you said, give me something positive to kinda focus on instead of focusing on the negative.”
As for his first round loss to Ortega, Edgar claims that it wasn’t neccessarily as brutal a blow as some have suggested.
“I just didn’t see it coming. I think that’s what it is more than anything. Everyone says, ‘Oh, it was the hardest shot you got hit with.’ It’s not always about the hardest one. The one you don’t see coming, I think, rocks you. You’re not expecting it and I just didn’t see that elbow when it got through.”
“It happens. You see it happen every fight night, pretty often, so it is what it is,” he added. “It’s definitely, it sucks. It sucks going home to your kids and they’re asking what happened and you’ve got to tell them what happened, and yeah, it’s not something I’m proud of, but again, it happened. What am I going to do?”
Heading into his next fight Edgar will likely also be taking some confidence from the fact that he already holds a 2014 win over Cub Swanson, finishing him with a neck crank submission in the dying seconds of the final round that night.
As it happens, Swanson is also coming off a loss to Ortega, albeit by submission instead of knockout, so both men will be hoping to put that firmly in the rear-view mirror by emerging victorious on April 21st at UFC Fight Night 126.
