Frankie Edgar’s on excitement overload for UFC 200, Conor McGregor and Brock Lesnar

Frankie Edgar could feel the warmth of summer arrive Wednesday near his New Jersey gym, and by standing one month and one day away from the heat of his UFC 200 appearance in Las Vegas.

One thought stood out.

“It feels like fight season,” said Edgar, who’ll take a five-fight winning streak to his July 9 interim featherweight title fight against Brazil’s former belt-wearer Jose Aldo.

“There’s a lot of buzz on our card. I couldn’t be more excited for this one,” Edgar said.

In addition to the light-heavyweight title rematch of Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones and the women’s bantamweight title bout between champion Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes, the pay-per-view card at T-Mobile Arena was strengthened Saturday by the announcement that former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar will return from a five-year hiatus in the WWE to fight No. 8 heavyweight Mark Hunt.

“He’s a credible athlete,” Edgar said of Lesnar. “What he’s done in amateur wrestling and professional wrestling and in his MMA career -- he has the highest pay-per-view record in the UFC -- more eyes are going to be watching when he’s on the card. And if more eyes are there to watch me, that’s better for myself.”

Former UFC lightweight champion Edgar (19-4-1) said training with other fighters who have summer dates, including lightweight title challenger Eddie Alvarez, has made for a lively, productive camp.

“We’re all peaking at the right time,” Edgar said. “There’s always bumps and bruises, but I always train to show up on fight night.”

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Aldo had to delay his December knockout loss to featherweight champion Conor McGregor because of a training-camp rib injury and Edgar said he was moved to call the UFC after hearing a rumor Tuesday that Aldo was hurt again. Not true, the UFC answered.

Edgar’s last loss was to Aldo in 2013, closing a streak of three straight losses in title fights.

“He’s the guy I want to fight,” Edgar said. “It’s my time. The last time we fought, I was coming off losing two close fights [to Benson Henderson]. This time, he just got iced in 13 seconds and I’m on a five-fight win streak with three finishes. The momentum is all on my side and I don’t think he wants it as much as me.

“He looks like a wounded animal, and I’m going to take him out.”

Meanwhile, McGregor’s interest in ever returning to the 145-pound featherweight division is a mystery. After McGregor knocked out Aldo, he sought to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight belt, but Dos Anjos pulled out less than two weeks before with a foot injury.

That brought McGregor an emergency replacement bout against Nate Diaz in March at the welterweight limit of 170 pounds. Diaz rocked McGregor with heavier punches in the second round and beat the fatigued Irishman by submission later in the round.

Instead of returning to his weight class, McGregor has committed to an Aug. 20 rematch at welterweight at UFC 202 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I haven’t been told anything [by UFC executives]. The last thing I heard was Conor’s next fight was going to be the winner of me and Aldo,” Edgar said. “Obviously, that doesn’t seem to be the case now. I’m not really worried about it. I’m just worried about Aldo, go get that title, and then the belt either becomes my belt or Conor is forced to fight me when he does come back down.”

Logic says if McGregor loses again to Diaz, he returns back down in weight. But if he wins, he has options in three UFC divisions, permitting the Edgar-Aldo winner to have the full featherweight belt.

“If you’re going to try to do some MMA math, that equation makes sense, but you just don’t know with Conor,” Edgar said. “He seems to get what he wants and say what he wants. He does bring in the numbers, so a lot has to do with him.

“I don’t see how he’s going to beat Nate. He couldn’t beat him on 10 days’ notice.”

Edgar said with that at play, winning July 9 will feel like claiming a second division belt.

“I’d love to fight Conor so everyone knows, and if he doesn’t come back down, maybe we can do it at 155,” Edgar said.

Meanwhile, Edgar is readying for a grand opening this weekend as a 50% owner of a new UFC Gym in North Brunswick, N.J. B.J. Penn has a similar deal with the UFC, with Sacramento’s Urijah Faber and Riverside County’s Cub Swanson also pursuing projects, according to Edgar.

“I’ve got to think about what I’m going to do after my fight career,” Edgar said. “This is something I could see myself diving into.”

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