(Note: This story first appeared in Tuesday’s edition of USA TODAY.)

Ex-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar finds himself in an increasingly unique situation before UFC 156: He didn’t talk his way there. And you won’t find Edgar campaigning the fight promotion for title shots, either.

Upon deciding to drop to featherweight, Edgar (14-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) said he didn’t expect to be awarded an immediate title fight with 145-pound champ Jose Aldo (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC), which headlines the Feb. 2 pay-per-view event at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“I was willing to do what I had to do,” Edgar said ahead of the UFC’s annual Super Bowl weekend event.

Aldo, who aims to prevent Edgar’s title challenge and defend his title for a fourth time in the UFC and sixth time overall, said the recent trend of matchmaking mirroring trash talk was not right. “Everybody should earn their opportunity to fight for the title,” Aldo said.

But that doesn’t always happen when the UFC puts together fights.

This past year, Chael Sonnen became the symbol for illegitimate opportunities when he goaded light heavyweight champ Jon Jones into an upcoming title bout. That fight, plus trash talk that gave rise to a UFC 158 headliner between welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre and Nick Diaz, has fueled sentiment that the UFC favors entertainment over sport.

Vitor Belfort is the latest fighter to try talking his way up the ladder. After dispatching middleweight contender Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC on FX 7 on Saturday, he bellowed to replace “punk” Sonnen in his UFC 159 fight with Jones.

Some UFC fighters understand the role hype plays. Former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans (17-2-1, 12-2-1), who meets Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (20-5, 3-2) in UFC 156’s co-main event, stayed mostly quiet when injuries forced a year-plus wait for a shot at the belt. But he said those who don’t sit quietly also are part of the business.

“I’m not annoyed by it,” Evans said. “You have to remember that the sport is entertainment as well as actual fighting. With the schedule they have now, it’s hard to make every single fight interesting. But I do give the UFC credit for putting fights together that people want to see. In the end, the cream will rise to the top.”

There’s no indication the UFC plans to change strategies, anyway.

Fans didn’t gripe when Edgar was booked against Aldo. In current betting lines, he’s a 2-to-1 underdog in the fight, which was moved from UFC 147 to UFC 156 because of an Aldo. Sonnen is a 5-to-1 underdog against Jones.

For more on UFC 156, as well as the rest of the UFC’s upcoming scheduled, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Frankie Edgar)