Coach Would ‘Love’ to See Frankie Edgar Fight for the Bantamweight Title

There was a lot of history made at UFC 222 a couple of weeks ago. Frankie Edgar was not only finished for the first time in his epic career, but it was the first time he wasn’t able to stop a contender from getting past him at featherweight. Most of the time ‘gatekeeper’ is used as an insult regarding fighting, but Edgar literally held the key for years, only beaten by Jose Aldo himself in the division. With his second belt seemingly out of reach now, coach Mark Henry would love to see Edgar at bantamweight fighting for a title.

“I’ll tell you one thing: I would love to see Frankie [Edgar] fight at 135. Every time Frankie has fought somebody his own size, he’s done very well. I re-watched the fight for the first time this weekend, and all these people had tweeted about how much bigger Brian [Ortega] looked. I watched it and said, ‘Holy cow, he was a lot bigger.’ It’s tough when you’re giving up size, height and range. Frankie got caught as he overstepped. He paid the price, but that’s what you have to do to compensate for that range. You have to come hard.”

Saturday did not go as planned, congrats to Ortega he definitely got me with some good ones. Thanks to all my peers, my team, my friends, and my fans for their nice words, they don’t go unnoticed. All I can do now is dust myself off and get ready to put it all on the line again.

— Frankie Edgar (@FrankieEdgar) March 5, 2018

“Honestly, I don’t think he’ll move down unless it’s for a title. I think for him, it’s a toughness thing. I’m guessing he looks at it as moving down looks like a weakness. Well, that’s his weight. If Frankie is 15 pounds less than someone on fight night, that’s three weight classes in boxing. That’s a lot. He was going to take the fight regardless of what I told him, but if I had to do it 100 more times, I would tell him to take that fight 100 times. That’s the way our camp and Frankie are. If you’re not confident in yourself, you should take up a different sport. Fighters that don’t want to take fights make me nervous. I have confidence in Frankie against anybody.” — Frankie Edgar speaking to ESPN.

While suddenly the idea of Frankie Edgar fighting TJ Dillashaw is causing mind explosions to anyone who is reading, however we all know that Edgar is a warrior. Would moving down another division feel like giving up? He’s only lost three times in five years and that was twice to the former featherweight king Aldo and just recently Brian Ortega. But still, if Edgar at bantamweight doesn’t get you fired up than you don’t have a pulse.

3/14/2018.