Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar has been fighting at the elite level for a long time now. Throughout his career as both a titleholder and challenger, he has faced the likes of B.J. Penn, Jose Aldo, and Ben Henderson, and has gone through other top caliber opponents such as Cub Swanson, Chad Mendes, and Jeremy Stephens, just to name a few.
But when asked whom he feels would be his toughest opponent in a title fight would be, “The Answer” pointed to current featherweight champion Max Holloway, the man he will be facing at UFC 222.
“I’m going to have to say yes, based on what he’s done in his career at this point,” Edgar told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports (transcript via BJPenn.com). “With him being so young and people want to say I’m being old, so I think this is my toughest test but this is what I want. If you want to be the best, you have to go after the best guys.”
“I do think I have that chip [on my shoulder of being too small]. I think you need to have a chip on your shoulder regardless, but the fact that people tell me I’m too small, or not strong enough, not tall enough and now I’m too old, that’s definitely motivating and I love proving people wrong. If I’m able to do that, that’s a notch on my hat.”
Edgar admits that he would need to step his game in order to get through Holloway. At the same time, he is confident in the wrestling skills that he would be bringing to the table.
“Everyone says that styles make match-ups. People want to write me off in this fight because he beat [Jose] Aldo twice and I lost to him twice, but MMA math don’t work like that,” Edgar said. “I think it’s going to take an A-level performance [to beat Holloway]. I really don’t see any weaknesses in his game.”
“Obviously, my wrestling background I think is something I’ll try to execute. Everyone knows that. Every fight, I go out there and throw a lot of punches and look for takedowns. It’s going to be no different this time around. We’re going to see. We’re going to see how his wrestling defense really is. He’s fought some wrestlers, but I don’t think he’s fought anyone the level of my wrestling right now.”
Holloway and Edgar will headline UFC 222, which takes place on March 3rd, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It will also feature a heavyweight fight between Stefan Struve and Andrei Arlovski, as well as the UFC debut of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu star and Invicta strawweight fighter Mackenzie Dern.