Frankie Edgar replaces Brian Ortega, meets Chan Sung Jung at UFC on ESPN+ 23

Frankie Edgar’s next fight won’t mark his debut at bantamweight, after all.

Edgar (23-7-1 MMA, 17-7-1 UFC) will remain at featherweight for at least one more fight. The former UFC lightweight champion has agreed to meet Chan Sung Jung (15-5 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN+ 23 main event later this month after Brian Ortega (14-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) withdrew from the card due to a knee injury.

MMA Junkie verified the change with multiple persons with knowledge of the booking following an initial report from ESPN.com. The persons requested anonymity because the UFC has yet to make an official announcement.

UFC on ESPN+ 23 takes place Dec. 21 at Sajik Arena in Busan, South Korea. The entire card streams on ESPN+.

After a lengthy stint at 145 pounds that included three failed title bids, Edgar announced he would finally move to bantamweight for his next fight. He’s already been booked against Cory Sandhagen at UFC on ESPN+ 24 on Jan. 25, but will first take on Jung. Edgar reportedly still wants to fight Sandhagen, but will first have the bout against Jung.

Jung, better known as “The Korean Zombie,” still gets his homecoming fight. He is coming off a knockout win over Renato Moicano at UFC on ESPN+ 12 in June and will attempt to make it two straight against Edgar, whom he was originally supposed to fight at UFC Fight Night 129 in November 2018.

MAIN CARD (ESPN+, 5 a.m. ET)

Frankie Edgar vs. Chan Sung Jung
Volkan Oezdemir vs. Aleksandar Rakic
Dooho Choi vs. Charles Jourdain
Da Un Jung vs. Mike Rodriguez
Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Jun Yong Park
Kyung Ho Kang vs. Liu Pingyuan

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN, 2 a.m. ET)

Tanner Boser vs. Ciryl Gane
Suman Mokhtarian vs. Seungwoo Choi
Dong Hyun Ma vs. Omar Morales
Alexandre Pantoja vs. Matt Schnell
Raoni Barcelos vs. Said Nurmagomedov
Miranda Granger vs. Amanda Lemos
Heili Alateng vs. Ryan Benoit