Pedro Munhoz believes ‘living legend’ Frankie Edgar is ‘dodging’ him, calls for June 6 fight
Pedro Munhoz (pictured) is campaigning for a fight with former UFC champ Frankie Edgar. | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Pedro Munhoz wants to be the one to welcome former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to the 135-pound weight class, but gets the feeling that “The Answer” is avoiding this pairing.
Edgar is cutting down from featherweight following back-to-back defeats to Max Holloway and Chan Sung Jung in 2019, and “The Young Punisher” says he was in negotiations with the company to meet Edgar in the octagon before the coronavirus pandemic affected the UFC calendar.
Munhoz felt back in April that the bout was verbally agreed upon for the planned June 6 UFC show, he said, but was surprised to see Edgar tell MMA Junkie he targeted Aljamain Sterling as his opponent for that exact card.
“When I saw him talking about Aljamain in this interview, I saw he was trying to avoid this fight in a way,” Munhoz said.
The Brazilian bantamweight was on an impressive three-fight run that included knockout victories over Bryan Caraway and Cody Garbrandt before he dropped a decision to Sterling last June, and feels he’s the perfect man to face Edgar next.
“What I got from the conversation (with the UFC) is that the fight was on,” Munhoz said. “We were discussing this weeks ago, even before this pandemic, but what surprised me was him saying in this interview that he was ready to fight in June and the fight that would make sense would be Aljamain Sterling.
“We were discussing date and location. But the way he did, simply talking about another guy… I don’t know how this message was delivered to him, but the message I got was that this fight was pretty much done verbally. I was training, the way I could, to fight him. When I saw this interview, I thought he was dodging me.”
Munhoz defends that “this is the fight I want, the fight the UFC wants, and the fight people want.” And the Florida-based bantamweight hopes it takes place in the United States instead of one of the “Fight Island” shows the company plans for next few months.
“It would be an exciting fight,” Munhoz said. “Frankie Edgar is a complete fighter, a black belt in jiu-jitsu, crisp boxing, great wrestling, impressive takedown defense. It would be like fighting a living legend of the sport, someone I’ve always watched since I started training. It would be awesome.”
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