Frankie Edgar “pissed” at the UFC

Yesterday after Rafael dos Anjos withdrew from his UFC 196 lightweight title fight against Conor McGregor less than 2 weeks from the event, many top contenders began to campaign for the slot opposite McGregor on March 5th.

Unfortunately, one of those men wasn’t Frankie Edgar, who has been campaigning for a fight against McGregor for quite some time. Edgar tore his groin and has been unable to train for the past 4 weeks, leaving him no choice but to turn down the fight.

He spoke to MMAFighting to discuss the injury, and why he’s pissed at the UFC.

“I got a call from Ali saying that Rafael Dos Anjos got hurt, and [the UFC] had texted him, ‘will Frankie fight him at 155?’ And, I’ve been hurt for the past four weeks. I’m pissed off for a couple of reasons. I’m pissed off that I’ve got this opportunity slip through again. I’m sitting here, I’m the one who’s been trying to fight this guy for months now. I’m flying myself to Vegas on my own dime to lobby to get a fight with this guy and now here comes the opportunity, and I’m hurt and I can’t take it. I haven’t done anything in four weeks. I didn’t just pull my groin, I tore it. I sent Dana and everyone in the UFC my MRI.”

“I’m even more pissed that Dana’s insinuating that I ‘refused’ to take this fight, which is bullshit. Just because they asked me doesn’t mean they were going to give it to me because guess what, in July they asked me to take the [UFC 189] fight on 15 day’s notice, which of course I accepted, and I still didn’t get it.”