Frankie Edgar is reportedly planning to fight Chan Sung Jung later this month and then Cory Sandhagen in January. But, the rising bantamweight won’t be holding his breath, waiting for his bout with the legend to materialize.
Sandhagen comments on Edgar’s decision to fight Jung
A few weeks ago, Edgar was booked to fight Sandhagen at UFC Raleigh on January 25th. The fight will be Edgar’s first at 135. But, after Brian Ortega was forced out of a December 21st bout with Jung this past week, Edgar stepped up to fight “The Korean Zombie”.
Now, since word of that bout surfaced, it’s also been reported that Edgar will see how he is after the Jung fight. If he’s healthy, he reportedly plans to fight Sandhagen next month.
Well, while speaking to MMA Junkie recently, Sandhagen had this to say about what’s gone down:
“The line of information that I got is that he wants to fight in South Korea and then again in January, so I don’t know logistically how that’s going to work out,” Sandhangen said. “Fighting ‘Korean Zombie’ in five rounds, I can’t imagine he’s going to be good, but if he is then ok.
“I don’t want to be put in limbo holding my breath all the way till December 21. Dieting and still training really hard, if I don’t know if I have a fight because I take it very seriously and that’s a lot of discipline in those weeks, which I’m ok in doing. But like I said, that just leaves me in limbo a little bit, but I don’t know, the UFC and my agent will have to work something out.”
“…I mean yeah, I still want to fight him, but I don’t know just because I don’t want to be left in limbo and I don’t want to hold my breath for that long,” Sandhagen said. “But of course I want to fight Frankie, I was pretty salty about it when I found out; I was like, ‘Oh man, when you sign a contract, you sign a contract. That’s what you do.’
Sandhagen’s concerns are understandable
Even if you’re excited to see Edgar and Jung fight, you have to feel for Sandhagen here. Jung is ridiculously dangerous and durable. That’s why Sandhagen’s not the only person who’s said they don’t see Edgar emerging from the bout unscathed. Further, it’s not like we’re talking about a situation where Edgar would be fighting Sandhagen, say, three months down the line. So, in other words, the timing of the fights makes this a pretty precarious situation.
If Edgar isn’t good to go, it will be interesting to see whether the UFC finds a new opponent for Sandhagen and who it is. The 27-year-old is riding a seven-fight winning streak and is coming off a decision win over longtime contender, Raphael Assuncao.
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