Former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar will be battling Yair Rodriguez at UFC 211.
Ricardo Lamas had been pushing for a fight with Edgar, and now Edgar explains why he went with Rodriguez instead.
“I don’t know. I wanted to fight May 13th. I know [Ricardo] Lamas reached out to me on Twitter a couple of times. I was cool with that fight but the UFC looked like they wanted to go in a different direction. They suggested Yair, and I’m pretty easy so I said, ‘Let’s do it. May 13th sounds pretty good to me,’” Edgar said on The Anik & Florian Podcast.
Edgar also signed a contract extension with the UFC, which is for an additional six fights.
The former lightweight champion also wonders whether or not the fight with Rodriguez is a bigger fight than the one with Lamas would’ve been.
“I don’t know [if it’s a bigger fight]. If it’s any indicator in the buzz I’m getting, I’m definitely getting a lot of buzz. This fight seems like a pretty big fight. People are interested in seeing Yair and testing him against someone like myself. So yeah, the buzz has been great with the media and my social network so maybe it is the bigger fight. To me it doesn’t matter. I’ve still got to show up on May 13th and get the job done,” says Edgar.
UFC 211 takes place on Saturday, May 13 from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas with Stipe Miocic and Junior Dos Santos headlining.
