Frankie Edgar has made it clear he wants to make a run at the UFC’s bantamweight title, and now holds a win over a top ranked contender. But, don’t expect the former lightweight champ to be fighting for the bantamweight crown next.

White says Edgar has some “work to do”

Edgar finally made his bantamweight debut at UFC Vegas 7 on Saturday night, and took on contender, Pedro Munhoz. As lots of people expected, the fight featured non-stop action and numerous, punishing exchanges.

After 25 minutes, two of the three judges awarded the fight to Edgar. So, on account of the fact Munhoz is ranked #5, and because of what Edgar’s accomplished during his storied career, White was asked about the American’s title shot prospects afterward (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“There’s some things that have to play out and there’s people ahead of him,” White said. “He put on a good showing tonight and put himself in a good position, but he’s got some work to do there.

“Two [more fights] or one, we don’t know, it depends on who he fights next.”

And while discussing the fight’s decision and how Edgar looked at 135, White said this.

“Listen, the guy’s gonna be [39] years old in October or November,” White said. “To say that he looked better at 155, 145, or whatever, the career that the guy has had has been unbelievable.

“The fact that he’s still performing the way that he’s performing at his age and the wars that he’s been through and all the things that he’s accomplished, yeah I’d say that he looked pretty damn good tonight.”

“…It was a close fight,? It was close. If they’d have said Munhoz, I wouldn’t have said, ‘Oh my God, that’s crazy’ either. Either one of those guys could have won that fight.”

Makes sense?

So, even if you’re a big Edgar booster, you have to concede handing him a title shot next doesn’t make sense.

Even if Edgar had gone out and finished Munhoz in emphatic fashion, you would be hard pressed to say he deserves to leap past Aljamain Sterling. The latter is ranked #2 in the division and he’s won five straight fights.

In addition, Sterling has defeated contenders like Cody Stamman, Jimmie Rivera, Cory Sandhagen and Munhoz during that time.

Edgar officially won his bout on Saturday, but a lot of people, including one judge, scored it for Munhoz. So, making the case that he should fight the new champ Petr Yan next, is a tough go.

White also said during the post-fight presser that Sterling will likely be tapped to fight Yan. So, it will be interesting to see who the UFC books to face Edgar.

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