Following the news of UFC 176 being cancelled in light of Jose Aldo’s injury and his inability to defend the UFC Featherweight championship against Chad Mendes, there’s now talk of crowning an interim champion.
Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting tweeted on Wednesday, citing comments from Lorenzo Fertita:
Fertitta says that either Frankie Edgar or Cub Swanson could step up for an interim title bout versus Mendes if Aldo can't go in October.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) July 9, 2014
Edgar rose to the #2 spot in UFC’s Featherweight division after his dominant victory over BJ Penn on Sunday night. He bumped Cub Swanson out of that spot, who now sits at #3.
With only 5 months since Jose Aldo’s last title defense (it would be 8 months by October), this does seem like a hasty course of action from UFC officials, since reigning UFC champions have had much longer stretches since their last fights.
Heavyweight champion Can Velasquez last fought at UFC 166 back in October 2013 (5th round TKO title defense against Junior dos Santos), while Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis last fought at UFC 164 in August 2013, where he tapped out Benson Henderson in the first round to capture the gold.
Comment below and tell us what you think about the possibility of UFC crowning an Interim Featherweight Champion.
