Tweetback: UFC’s Frankie Edgar to offer SportsCenter analysis this week; Sage Steele on pace with NASCAR

With many unanswered questions surrounding Saturday’s UFC 163, ESPN’s SportsCenter is turning to “The Answer” – Frankie Edgar – to provide analysis of this weekend’s Rio de Janeiro card beginning Friday afternoon and continuing through Sunday.

“Getting to work with a major sports network like ESPN is a great opportunity,” Edgar told Front Row on Sunday. “Whenever ESPN covers UFC through its various platforms, the sport gets introduced to mainstream sports fans. The more sports fans see and learn about the sport the more quickly it grows.”

“We’re excited to have Frankie as part of our coverage of UFC 163,” said Senior Coordinating Producer Glenn Jacobs. “As someone who went five rounds in the octagon with Jose Aldo earlier this year, Frankie will bring a unique perspective to our fans.”

(Aldo faces Chan Sung Jung in UFC 163’s main event.)

Edgar is coming off a featherweight division win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 162 and stands at 15-4-1 for his career. He is widely known for upsetting B.J. Penn to win the UFC Lightweight title at UFC 112.

“I think most guys understand this is part of the sport now just like other major sports,” said Edgar, who fights out of Toms River, N.J., about three hours from ESPN’s campus. “I’m not one to talk down on any fighters so I’m just going to say it how I see it.”

Edgar said he’s looking forward to meeting many of the people he watches regularly on ESPN.

“I don’t know if I can emulate any of them but I really like Stuart Scott and I know he is a big UFC fan,” said Edgar, a 2005 Clarion University graduate. “I’m looking forward to catching all the anchors up there. I did meet Stuart Scott once before at a fight, so it would be cool to run into him again.”

Now, onto the weekly Tweetback. . .