The UFC has switched up their plans for a bantamweight contest that will go down in November. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported this afternoon that the promotion was booking at contest between Frankie Edgar (24-9-1) and Chito Vera (19-7-1).
The matchup will take place at UFC 268 on November 6th. Now, originally the promotion was planning on Edgar taking on Sean O’Malley on this card. However, The Suga Show turned down the date due to some conflicts in his schedule.
The UFC wanted to keep Edgar on the card with the card being planned for Madison Square Garden. Edgar, a New Jersey native, was also wanting to stay on the NYC card in November.
As a result, the UFC scrapped their plans for O’Malley and shifted to the one man who’s defeated him, Chito Vera. Vera is coming off of a bounce back win back in June when he defeated Davey Grant by decision.
That win came on the heels of Vera’s loss to former UFC champion Jose Aldo back in December. Now, Vera is getting right back in there with another legend and another former UFC champion.
Last UFC Stand for Edgar?
Frankie Edgar still has a lot of fight left in him. The former lightweight champion is now competing in his third weight class in the UFC as he’s trying to once again capture gold that has evaded him since 2012.
As mentioned, Edgar became a star when he became the UFC lightweight champion. That said, Edgar was always undersized for a lightweight. Eventually, Edgar moved to 145 pounds and tried to become a champion at featherweight.
Edgar had three cracks at the UFC featherweight title and came up short in each contest. For the final move of his career, Edgar decided to drop down to 135 pounds and compete as a bantamweight.
In reality, this is the best weight class for Edgar and who knows what his career would’ve been like if he would have been at 135 the entire time. He made his bantamweight debut last year and picked up a win over Pedro Munhoz.
Edgar lost in a UFC title eliminator earlier this year to Cory Sandhagen by first round knockout in 28 seconds. That said, Edgar is still ready to try again and he’s ready to take on Chito Vera.