Frankie Edgar: ‘The Money Era Has People Making Up Characters Like This Is WWE’
Frankie Edgar recently celebrated 10 years of fighting in the UFC and he’s one of the few fighters remaining from that era still competing in the promotion.
As a former UFC lightweight champion, Edgar knows what it’s like to rise to the top of the mountain, but the game has changed a lot since he last held UFC gold and the landscape probably won’t ever be the same. With multiple champions now calling for “money fights” and “super fights” with other champions to maxmise their earning potential, the days of the champion always fighting the #1 contenders are long gone.
Speaking about the increasing tendency for champions to chase money rather than true competition on the MMA Roasted podcast this week, Edgar admitted that he can see why it’s becoming an ever increasing trend.
“I think it does a little bit, I think it takes away from the legitimacy of the belts and whatnot, but I mean, it is the entertainment business and people want to see certain fights and they want money fights,” Edgar said.
“I know champions want money fights and sometimes it’s not the best guy, it’s the most popular guy that gets them that money fight, but it is a business. I’m kinda old school and I think the rankings are the best way to go, but I get it on both sides.”
While happy to aknowledge that he understands why champions chase the money, something that doesn’t quite sit so well with Edgar are some of the personalities coming to the fore in the sport. When asked what he made of the likes of Colby Covington and his antics in Brazil recently, Edgar said it was a development in the sport that he would rather not see.
“The whole money fight era has people making up characters like it’s almost WWE and having these promos and this and that,” Edgar said. “Some people just aren’t that good at it.
“Conor kinda changed the world for that with everybody, but he’s actually good at it. A lot of these guys sound lame to me.”
Listen to the full podcast here:
