Underrated Frankie Edgar laboring for another title shot, with no guarantee that he'll get it

LAS VEGAS – Frankie Edgar doesn’t get tune-up fights, or bouts where he’s got all of the physical advantages.

When he was the UFC lightweight champion, he was almost always physically outmanned, sometimes, his manager said, by as many as 35 pounds.

“Frankie is a different creature with a different mindset,” his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, told Yahoo Sports. “Pound for pound, he’s mentally the toughest guy in the UFC. He got knocked down nine times in a fight [with Gray Maynard] and got a draw, even though I think he deserved to win.

“When he was the lightweight champion, he went to the cage at 155 pounds and he was fighting guys who weighed 190. He never cut weight and he never worried about anything. He just worried about doing his job, winning, and making the fans happy.”

The last time he lost conclusively was the first of what would be three fights with Maynard, when he was beaten on a Fight Night card in Colorado.

Since that fight, he’s 10-3-1, and all three losses and the draw were extremely close. There are many who will argue that he should have gotten the decisions over Benson Henderson in both of their lightweight title fights, as well as in his featherweight title fight with Jose Aldo.

While it’s also true that B.J. Penn still believes he beat Edgar twice in 2010, the point is that Edgar remains among the game’s elite after more than 10 years as a pro, including eight-plus years in the UFC.

Despite his series of great fights – he’s been in seven bouts named UFC Fight of the Night – he’s been sort of under the radar recently.

In his only previous 2015 appearance, he bested Urijah Faber in the main event of a Fight Night card in the Philippines. It’s been more than two years since he’s appeared on a pay-per-view card and though he’s in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter finale Friday at The Cosmopolitan against Chad Mendes, he hasn’t been a huge part of the UFC’s super fight week push.

There are two title fights on Saturday at UFC 194, with Aldo meeting Conor McGregor in a featherweight title bout in the main event, and Luke Rockhold challenging Chris Weidman for the middleweight belt in the co-main.

Edgar hasn’t even gotten so much as a guarantee that he’ll fight for the featherweight title in his next bout if he defeats Mendes.

“I really haven’t been guaranteed anything else,” Edgar said. “Speaking to [UFC president] Dana [White], pretty much you just don’t know what’s going to happen with Aldo and McGregor. … I mean, I think the winner of our fight should get the next title shot, especially me coming off five straight wins over top-notch guys.

“But, again nothing’s guaranteed. And I’m not banking on anything. I’ve just got to make sure I take care of business [on Friday] and put myself in the best position to get that title shot.”

Despite the slew of great potential matches on the three cards this week, the Edgar-Mendes bout clearly stands as one that could overshadow the rest.

He’s focused solely on getting another title shot, and if he beats Mendes, that would mean he’d have had five wins in a row with victories over Mendes, Faber, Cub Swanson, Penn and Charles Oliveira.

McGregor has already said he’s planning for his next fight after Aldo to be for the UFC lightweight title, and White did not dispute that.

“Making that weight is really hard for Conor,” White said of the featherweight limit of 145.

And so if he wins, he could wind up fighting the winner of next week’s lightweight title bout between Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone, or he could rematch with Aldo.

Aldo is also a big featherweight and there is the possibility that both of them will leave the division after their bout.

That would probably leave the winner of Edgar-Mendes to fight another top contender for what would then be the vacant crown.

Abdelaziz doesn’t believe a move to 155 would be a wise move for McGregor, but said Edgar’s interest is not in any particular opponent but in the championship itself.

“I think it would be the biggest mistake of his life to go to 155,” Abdelaziz said. “There are a lot of very, very big guys there with very good skills. I could see Aldo doing it, but it doesn’t matter as far as Frankie is concerned.

“He’s taken on everybody, guys who are monsters, way bigger than him, and he’s never backed down. He doesn’t have anything to prove. He just wants the title and so he needs to take care of business, which I believe he’ll do, and then he’ll be right there for that next shot.”

Don’t be surprised if, while making that bid for the next featherweight title shot, Edgar doesn’t wind up stealing the show.

He’s that kind of a guy.

He’s that kind of a fighter.