Cub Swanson Didn’t Think He Would Be Back With the UFC After Brief Time as a Free Agent

All good things must come to an end… It just depends on when! And the time was not now for veteran featherweight, Cub Swanson. Swanson has had twenty-two fights in the UFC and WEC combined.

A fan favorite in the aforementioned WEC, Swanson’s popularity carried over to the UFC after the organization was absorbed and his name value only began to grow from there. All you need to do is look at his eight fight of the night awards to see the evidence.

However, after his last time out against Brian Ortega, Swanson’s contract had expired and he would officially become a free agent. Not just any free agent though, but a free agent coming off a loss.

Because of this, Swanson had accepted the fact that his tenure with the UFC may have finally ran it’s course as he said on The MMA Hour today.

“I love fighting for the UFC, it’s been awesome for me. But at the end of the day, it got to a point where I really thought that I wasn’t going to re-sign. I thought that OK, my time is done, it is what it is. For a few months, I thought I was done with the UFC.”

Signs even appeared to point to Swanson not returning as he was effectively removed from the UFC’s official rankings just ten days ago.

But that ended up meaning nothing as he was offered and accepted a rematch with former lightweight champion and two-time featherweight title challenger, Frankie Edgar soon after.

The first time the two met was at UFC Fight Night 57 back in 2014. The fight saw Edgar nullifying Swanson for essentially the full twenty-five minutes before Edgar locked on a neck crank with four seconds to spare, forcing the tap from Swanson.

So when offered the fight, there was no hesitation from the ‘Killer Cub’.

“I said, ‘Cool, let’s do it’. He gave me just a straight ass kicking. I owe him one.

My passion is with the UFC. There’s a lot of fights that make me hungry. To be in the big show, to be in the big fights. That played a big role in it.”

This doesn’t mean that there weren’t other bidders in the Cub Swanson sweepstakes though as he also mentioned that “pretty much everybody” in terms of other organizations approached his manager in one form or another.

“Some of the other companies were trying to play games and I didn’t appreciate that. Then in a quick second, I’m fighting Frankie Edgar. It’s crazy.”

Are you excited to see Cub Swanson returning to the UFC? Do you think he can beat Edgar this time around?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/26/2018