Frankie Edgar Targeted To Replace Ortega Against ‘The Korean Zombie’

Frankie Edgar’s bantamweight debut may be on hold some more.

Late Wednesday night, it was reported that Ortega was out of his UFC Busan main event against Chan Sung Jung, aka ‘The Korean Zombie’ due to an injury. He later took to social media saying it was because of a partial tear of his ACL.

Now, according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, Frankie Edgar is the frontrunner to replace Ortega and take on Jung.

Although Edgar is set to fight Cory Sandhagen on Jan. 25 in his bantamweight debut, Helwani is reporting that the UFC hopes that fight can also happen.

Frankie Edgar is coming off of a decision loss to Max Holloway at UFC 240 for the featherweight title. Before that, he beat Cub Swanson to return to the win column after a knockout loss to Brian Ortega.

‘The Korean Zombie’ meanwhile, returned to the win column in a big way last time out with a 58-second knockout win over Renato Moicano. The fight before he was knocked out at the last second against Yair Rodriguez.

Interestingly enough, Edgar and Jung were booked to fight each other last November. Yet, Edgar pulled out due to an injury and Rodriguez stepped in.

The UFC is still searching for a replacement, but for the time being, Frankie Edgar is the frontrunner. They would then hope he would fight ‘The Korean Zombie’ and then Cory Sandhagen just a month later.

Cole Shelton
Cole Shelton is a full-time sports writer primarily focusing on MMA. He graduated from Sheridan College with a journalism degree in 2019.

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