Set to face perennial contender Urijah Faber Saturday in Manila, former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar is already looking forward to another shot at the featherweight strap.

"I do believe if I take care of business on May 16 that I'm the guy that will fight the winner of [Jose] Aldo and [Conor] McGregor," says Edgar.

Edgar scored a bruising, fifth-round submission win over Cub Swanson Nov. 22 in Austin, Texas, but McGregor will challenge featherweight champion Jose Aldo Jul. 11 at UFC 189 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"I beat the No. 1 contender pretty handily my last fight," said Edgar. "I was hoping that was going to be enough to get me that title shot, but McGregor did a good job of putting away everybody he's fought and promoting himself the right way to get that title shot."

Still fairly complimentary of McGregor's rise as a contender, Edgar believes the Irishman could still have some holes in his game.

"I still think there are some unknowns about McGregor," said Edgar. "We haven't really seen him go a long distance fight. You haven't seen him kind of deal with adversity and you really don't know anything about his ground game, but everything that we do know about him is top notch."

Edgar hasn't been coy about picking the champion to survive the challenge, saying McGregor 'has never met anyone as strong as Aldo' earlier this week.

"He's in a good position with Aldo," Edgar said of McGregor. "He's a phenomenal athlete. He's a great fighter. I think a lot of people kind of hate on him just because of his mouth, but I mean he's lived up to everything he said. He's gone in there and made quick work of pretty much everybody."

5 MUST-READ STORIES

Rumble. Anthony Johnson says Daniel Cormier is a 'tougher fight' for him than former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. 'This is his second chance, so I know he's going to bring it even more.'

Chat Wrap. Luke Thomas discusses Ronda Rousey's big week, Reebok fallout, Frankie Edgar vs. Urijah Faber, Bellator 137 and more in this week's live chat.

'It's gotta be fixed.' MMA managers speak out on the UFC-Reebok pay structure. 'I'll have guys in Bellator making more money than the guy I have headlining a UFC event.'

'I'll do her a favor and knock her out fast.' Bethe Correia tells UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to ‘Learn how to lose and don't do drugs again' after UFC 190.

King of the Ring. The well-rounded Tyrone Spong will make his MMA return at World Series of Fighting 22.

MEDIA STEW

Fight Night Manila open workouts.

Highlights of Carrington Banks vs. Sobah Homasi on TUF 21.

Pros predict Frankie Edgar vs. Urijah Faber.

Some highlights of Ronda Rousey on Howard Stern. (full audio here)

Gennady Golovkin Workout Video.

TTTHS.

Long watches.

UFC Manila Faber vs Edgar Care/Don't Care Preview

...

5 Rounds Today with Tom Atencio - Metamoris 6, Clothing Industry and UFC Manilla

...

TWEETS

Please be careful.

Great sparring today with @cainmma 5 rounds and it is always as terrible as u imagine. I feel great.... https://t.co/ZAv14pBv9n — Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) May 13, 2015

Soon.

Getting close! Ready to rumble. #Repost @ufc with repostapp. ・・・ Huge warm welcome for The California... https://t.co/p49etxWJGD — Urijah Faber (@UrijahFaber) May 13, 2015

Congrats.

Finally hit 1,000,000 Twitter followers! Thank you for the support everybody!!!❤️❤️❤️ — Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) May 13, 2015

Get well soon.

So excited next week I'm back to work @JacksonWinkMMA what a journey life is ups and downs time for some ups! — Diego Sanchez UFC (@DiegoSanchezUFC) May 13, 2015

Interested?

Pretty impressive.

Secret photoshoot at global fitness studio. Whoops lol A video posted by Luke Rockhold (@lukerockhold) on May 13, 2015 at 2:32pm PDT





Matchmaking.

@Flyinjudoka Rob damn you would be a fun fight it's just to soon I'm not cleared or even back in the gym yet maybe down the road. — Diego Sanchez UFC (@DiegoSanchezUFC) May 13, 2015

Looks reasonable.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Announced yesterday (May 13 2015)

Josh Barnett vs. Roy Nelson at UFC Fight Night: Barnett vs. Nelson

FANPOST OF THE DAY

Today's Fanpost of the Day comes via tigerlee.

The Outsiders: Top 25 LWs Outside the UFC, BMMA, and WSOF #2

While most of the best talent is under the UFC banner, and Bellator and WSOF have seemed to scoop up the rest, there is still plenty of talent yet to be signed by the top promotions of the MMA food chain. These are not necessarily 'free agents' or even prospects, they are (mostly) top 100 ranked fighters who are navigating the nebulous seas of regional and international fight promotion for whatever reason. There was quite a bit of activity going on in the lightweight division since the last edition. Rick Hawn defeated fellow former BMMA vet Derek Loffer (9-3, UR) at CES MMA 28 by UD. Hawn is on a two fight streak since leaving Bellator. Jesse Ronson submitted Gadji Zaipulaev (20-8, #292) by 2nd round brabo choke at ADW2. Ronson is also on a two fight streak (with two stoppages) since being released by the UFC last July. Japanese legend Satoru Kitaoka picked up a UD over Akira Okada (9-4-3, #313) at Pancrase 265. Kitaoka is riding a four fight win streak and is 11-3 since 2009. Mansour Barnaoui continued his own four fight win streak with a first round TKO win over undefeated Maxim Divnich (11-1, #249) at M-1 Challenge 57 for the 155 title. At 22, Tarzan has won a couple international titles and is a fighter to look out for in the next couple years. Another young prospect, undefeated Mateusz Gamrot TKO'd Rodrigo Cavalheiro Correia (15-4, #451) in the 3rd round at KSW 30. Bellator vet Ricardo Tirloni decisioned Alejandro Solano Rodriguez (23-12-0-1, #305) at Calvo Promotions 5 to rebound from his split loss to Pat Healy. Finally, David Khachatryan extended win streak to eleven with a win over Mikhail Volkov (6-5, UR) by first round RNC at Fight Nights-Cup of Moscow. ...

Check out the rest of the post here.

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