Yves Edwards

By Kelsey Mowatt

To say Yves Edwards was eager to fight at this past Friday’s UFC on FX card in Minneapolis may be an understatement, as the veteran has yet to fight this year due to a serious arm surgery. Not only that, but as the lightweight relayed to Full Contact Fighter recently, Edwards was extremely excited to be taking on a fellow striker in Jeremy Stephens. After all, it was a fight that Edwards had stated, “everybody” was going to enjoy.

Of course, in what is now well documented history, Stephens never made it to the Target Center Friday for the UFC on FX card. After being arrested that same day by local authorities, for an outstanding warrant stemming from an alleged incident in Iowa last year, Stephens was unable to fight as scheduled. As a result, Edwards will have to continue to wait for his first appearance of 2012.

“It sucks,” said Edwards, when contacted by FCF for a comment. “I put a lot of work in for that fight and spent seven weeks away from home. The only part of it that doesn’t suck is that right now I’m at home.”

Edwards (41-18) has yet to fight since last December, when he lost by unanimous decision to Tony Ferguson, following a TKO win over Rafaello Oliveira in October. The “Thugjitsu Master” had been scheduled to fight Donald Cerrone in May, but was forced to withdraw due a biceps injury that required surgery.

At a minimum, the good news is that after Friday’s UFC on FX event, UFC President Dana White announced that Edwards would receive his show money for the bout.

“I don’t know all the details about Jeremy’s charges, but I know the guy and he has a family, so being in jail has gotta suck,” Edwards furthered.

According to a statement released by Stephen’s management on Monday, Evolution Agents, the 26 year-old was unaware of any outstanding warrant or charges.

“Well then that absolutely sucks,” added Edwards. “It’s worse to get blindsided by something, especially something this big. This could possibly change his life and I (and) not in a good way like the bonus we definitely would have earned.”

Edwards (left)

While Edwards is understandably disappointed about the fight falling through, White also relayed after the event that the promotion would do its best to get him another fights as soon as possible.

Due to the fact that Thiago Tavares was supposed to fight Dennis Hallman on Friday, until the latter failed to make weight and was removed from the card, there’s been some speculation as to whether the UFC may look to match Edwards and Tavares up next.

“Yeah, but the next two shows are in Rio and China; it’s not realistic to think I can afford plane tickets for my corners for international flights on short notice like that,” said Edwards, while discussing whether a bout with Tavares may be possible in the short term. “The first show that’s realistic seems to be 154.”

Edwards is of course referring to this coming Saturday’s UFC 153 card in Rio de Janeiro and the promotion’s UFC:Macao event on November 10th. The organization will return to Montreal for UFC 154 on November 17th.

While it’s been a long year for the Edwards, barring more bad luck, it appears as though he will step into the Octagon at least once before the year is out.