An exciting bantamweight contest between top-15 ranked veterans Frankie Edgar and Marlon Vera has been added to UFC 268.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to confirm that Edgar vs. Vera will take place at UFC 268, which is set to take place on November 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The UFC had been looking for an opponent for Edgar for several weeks now, and had offered the fight to top prospect Sean O’Malley, but “Suga” turned down the fight, saying he didn’t want to fight in NYC. Instead, the only man to defeat O’Malley in the UFC in Vera will be the one who ends up getting the fight against Edgar at UFC 268 after all.
Frankie Edgar ( @FrankieEdgar ) will return to MSG for the first time since 2016. Edgar vs. Chito Vera ( @chitoveraUFC ) has been agreed to for 11/6 in New York, per sources.
Edgar (24-9-1) is the No. 8 ranked bantamweight in the UFC. The 39-year-old American, who is the former UFC lightweight champion, is coming off of a devastating KO loss to Cory Sandhagen in his last outing, although he had defeated Pedro Munhoz via split decision before that. Since making the drop down to 135lbs last year, Edgar is just 1-1, but if he is able to go out there and defeat a top fighter like Vera, he will remain a top-10 fighter.
Vera (17-7-1) is the No. 13 ranked bantamweight in the UFC. The 28-year-old Ecuador native is coming off of an impressive decision win over Davey Grant in his last fight to bounce back from a decision loss to Jose Aldo before that. Last summer, he defeated O’Malley via first-round TKO and he will now be looking to take advantage of a great opportunity and beat Edgar, the man who O’Malley turned down.
