Frankie Edgar: If the Conor McGregor fight was real, Dana White would’ve personally called me

After months of uncertainty, Conor McGregor came out of the woodwork last week to announce that he was fighting again. He even revealed that he offered to step in as a last-minute replacement for Max Holloway to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222.

The Edgar camp, in turn, had disputed McGregor’s statement through manager Ali Abdel-Aziz. On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Edgar himself issued his own response.

“I think if it was real, Dana would’ve called me personally,” Edgar told Ariel Helwani (via MMA Fighting). “He’s done before. With something like that, Dana would’ve called me personally, and he didn’t, so I have to think that it wasn’t real.”

“I don’t know, I think Conor’s just being Conor, man,” he added. “He’s the best at it, right? He’s the best at making news and staying relevant. I don’t mean relevant, he’s the most popular guy in our sport, this and that, but staying in the news cycle. He does it better than anybody, except maybe Floyd Mayweather.

“I’m not surprised by it, and I’m not getting sidetracked by it because it doesn’t matter. It’s non-news to me. Because the news is I’m fighting a guy who fights in the UFC right now, Brian Ortega.”

Abdel-Aziz recently claimed via Twitter that McGregor called the UFC to open up a 165-pound weight class for the Edgar fight. Frankie found this a bit odd, which made him cast more doubts.

“I mean, come on, there is no 165-pound belt. You know what I’m saying?” Edgar said. “I want to fight on the moon. You know what I mean? Come on.”

“He doesn’t want to defend his own belt. What, he wants to fight me? I mean, hey, that’d be great. That’d be great for me. Let’s be real. I’m not scared to fight anybody. Come on, I’ve been doing too long to be scared to fight anybody. I mean, if anything, that would be very good for me, to fight Conor McGregor.”

“I would’ve fought him in any weight class, to be honest with you.

Edgar and Ortega will be co-headlining UFC 222 this Saturday, March 3^rd, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.