Frankie Edgar isn’t interested in being Yair Rodriguez’s stepping stone.
Yesterday (March 9), the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced a featherweight scrap that’s been added to the UFC 211 card on May 13. Former UFC lightweight champion Edgar will battle the No. 9 ranked UFC featherweight Rodriguez.
When the bout was revealed, many were excited and others were confused. While a bout between “The Answer” and “El Pantera” is expected to deliver fireworks, there is a feeling that Rodriguez may not be ready for such a challenge at this stage in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career.
In his last four bouts, Rodriguez has faced Dan Hooker, Andre Fili, Alex Caceres, and B.J. Penn. Meanwhile, Edgar has battled Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, and Jeremy Stephens in his last four outings.
Edgar believes he knows exactly why the UFC booked him to face Rodriguez inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. “The Answer” told Flo Combat that he doesn’t plan on falling to “El Pantera:”
“Texas is my place and I have some big wins there. I got the win over Gray [Maynard] there. I got the win over Cub [Swanson] there and it’s going to be great to go back there for this one. These Texans are coming to see the kid. That’s who they are coming to see. Whoever they give me is who I get fired up for. It doesn’t matter to me. It looked like it would be Ricardo Lamas for a bit there. We agreed to fight over Twitter and basically set it up for them, but then they wanted this guy instead. It doesn’t matter who it is. Sign me up. For me the objective is always the same and that’s to get the job done. It doesn’t matter how, where or who made it happen. I just go in there and get it done. I’m a robot I guess in that aspect. Winning is the only objective. I know what they are trying to do. They want to bring this dude up using my name and we ain’t gonna let that happen. No way will that happen.”
