As a native of neighboring New Jersey, Frankie Edgar has long dreamt of fighting at New York's Madison Square Garden.
And now that there's a date in place for the UFC's debut in the famed venue -- Nov. 12 for UFC 205 -- the former UFC lightweight champion has an opponent in mind.
The way Edgar sees it, should he defeat Jose Aldo for the UFC interim featherweight title next month at UFC 200, a date with featherweight champ Conor McGregor at MSG would be a no-brainer.
"You can't write something better than that," Edgar said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "Why wouldn't Conor want to fight at MSG? There's definitely a big Irish contingency in New York and it could be possibly biggest fight UFC history."
Of course, in order to get there, McGregor, who meets Nate Diaz in a welterweight rematch at UFC 202, would have to fight at 145 again. And Edgar's not yet convinced the man holding the division's title wants to fight there any more.
"At '45, he has everything to lose," Edgar said. "At '70 he has nothing to lose, even though Nate is a '55 pounder and they decided not to cut weight, so they can market going up two weight classes which is ridiculous since he's a 55 pounder ... at '45, if he loses, he has nothing. He has a hard time making the weight. If he goes to 55 he's not going to be in the title talks for awhile."
Of course, all of this will be moot if Edgar goes out and loses to Aldo, who took a narrow decision from Edgar in their first meeting at UFC 156.
Edgar heard last week's rumors that Aldo was injured -- which turned out to be false -- but he said he's not wasting too much energy worrying about who will be on the other side of the Octagon come July 9.
"I really didn't worry about it," said Edgar, who is opening a UFC Gym in N. Brunswick, N.J. "I'm hearing things, you hear rumors, I just looked at it as I'm going to be there no matter what. I'm going to show up July 9 to fight. Whoever it may be. Obviously I want it to be Jose Aldo I think he deserves it and that's the fight I want. Based on the fact I was close to beating him last time, so there's a little revenge in the air and whatnot."
The big X-factor going into the bout, as far as Edgar is concerned, is Aldo's mental state. The man whose combined UFC/WEC featherweight title reign was the second-longest in company history lost his belt in embarrassing fashion at UFC 194, getting knocked out in just 13 seconds.
"To be so dominant for this long, and then to lose like that, Conor is worst guy to lose to in that fashion," Edgar said. "He already let the world know before and he let the world know after. He digs better than anybody. Some guys get through it and some guys don't. He may say this or say that in the leadup for the fight, but even he won't know until he steps into the Octagon."
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