Edgar Sets Timeline For Bantamweight Debut

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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who dropped down to featherweight for the second half of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, took a short-notice fight against Chan Sung Jung last month in Busan.

And got smoked in the very first round.

In typical Edgar fashion, “The Answer” had no excuses for coming up short and instead credited Jung for the standout performance.

“He caught me with a good shot,” Edgar told MMA Fighting. “I’m sure I’ll look at it and I’ll be a little critical of something I did, but he’s on a tear. He’s been putting dudes away for a long time. He got me with a good shot. I did my best to stand there as long as I could, but it’s the way it went.”

Edgar suffered a broken orbital in his “Korean Zombie” loss and will be forced to remain on the sidelines for six weeks. That’s long enough to keep from making his bantamweight debut at UFC Raleigh, but the plan to drop to 135 pounds remains intact.

“Just six weeks to heal and I’m good to go,” Edgar insisted. “I think what I need to do is put myself in a favorable position to win my next fight, and that’s at 135. I’m going to see what the UFC says, what they want from me. Coming off two losses, even though they’re up a weight class, I don’t know what they’re going to give me. But I’m always game.”

Edgar (23-8-1) has now dropped three of his last four and at age 38, there’s not much sand left in the proverbial hourglass. In addition, the bantamweight Top 15 (see it here) offers little reprieve in terms of dangerous talent.