Frankie Edgar won the final victory of his mixed martial arts career three and a half years ago, but Saturday's revelation that he will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame brought back some nostalgia.
“I'm home,” Edgar told the Post this week after returning to his home in Toms River, New Jersey from UFC 297 in Toronto. He “felt like I came home victorious.”
The former UFC lightweight champion, who retired in November 2022 following a knockout loss at Madison Square Garden, will join the modern wing as part of the 2024 class as part of the summer's International Fight Week, UFC said. CEO Dana White said. In a statement.
This honor would have been unfathomable when Edgar made his professional debut in the Bronx 19 years ago. At the time, there were only three people in the UFC Hall of Fame: Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Dan Severn.
When Edgar shocked BJ Penn to win the 155-pound title in April 2010, the Hall had only six members. Only Gracie, the giant killer who won three of the UFC's first four tournaments and unleashed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the martial arts world, competed under 205 pounds.
It was the 5-foot-6 Edgar who became the greatest David of Goliaths since the UFC evolved from the No Holds Bird era of the 1990s into modern MMA.
“All my life, I've been a little guy, so I always felt like I was trying to prove the doubters wrong because of my small stature,” Edgar said. For a long time he was considered a natural 135 pounder.
“That's kind of how the UFC came about. That's why a 170-pound guy named Royce Gracie… [is] He punched and choked a 200-pound man.That's really why he caught the attention of the UFC, and it's kind of cool to be a little part of that. [myself]”
Edgar received a hotly debated decision from Penn (himself a challenger and former 170-pound champion who once faced future 205-pound champion, stocky 191-pounder Lyoto Machida). They took the championship before thoroughly defeating the Hawaiians in four months. later.
What followed in 2011 were two championship showdowns that forever cemented Edgar's place in MMA legend.
The first new challenger to the championship, Gray Maynard, won by decision in 2008 and was the only man to beat Edgar in the Octagon.
Maynard, like Edgar, was once a standout college wrestler, but during the first round of their rematch on New Year's Day 2011, he brutally assaulted the champion in one of the most lopsided rounds in the history of the sport.
That's when the legend of Edgar's mettle was born. He fought back fiercely in the final 20 minutes to save the draw and defend his title, setting up a third bout in October of the same year.
Once again Edgar ran into trouble early against Maynard and was forced to endure an onslaught of attacks, but this time Edgar truly paid the price for his rival by knocking him out in the fourth round.
Edgar had a knack for performing better in the second or third matchup, and he attributed that to his corner and the main voice in the gym.
“I have to leave it to coach Mark Henry,” Edgar said. “He's always making these adjustments and we've been able to execute them. The more I get into it, the more I think [the cage] With someone [as an opponent], the cream will rise to the top, so find a way to figure it out. ”
His victory over Maynard was his last as a lightweight, as he lost back-to-back decisions to Benson Henderson.
Even against Henderson, a particularly big 155er who bounced between lightweight and welterweight late in his career, Edgar said some believe he is the rightful winner of the rematch following their competitive first matchup. There are still many.
“I could have argued that I won the first match,” Edgar said, quickly saying he wasn't at fault. “I'm not one to sit there and complain. That's the way it is at the moment. But if I hadn't gotten that upkick in the first fight, I almost would have won the second round. But [second] I thought we fought and won 4-1, but it was just that.”
After years of publicly cheating, Edgar finally moved down to featherweight, largely because the immediate title shot against Jose Aldo that was given to him was the quickest route to UFC gold. Because it was the root.
Aldo, the greatest of all time, won by decision during the competition, but Edgar won seven of his next eight wins (with another decision loss to Aldo in between) from 2013 to 2017 at 145 pounds. He proved his worth and staked his right to be number one in the world rankings. Ranked 2nd in the featherweight division for 5 years.
When Conor McGregor began his meteoric rise to the top by knocking out Aldo in December 2015, Edgar was the obvious choice for his first title defense.
Both men publicly agreed to a fight on social media, but McGregor had no intention of fighting again at 145 pounds and the fight never materialized.
“I said yes, he said yes on Twitter, and my husband [White] Put the kibosh on that,” Edgar said. “I don't know, dude. I think we might have gone in a different direction. But yeah, we missed that boat.”
Renowned for his durability, Edgar suffered back-to-back (T)KO losses to Brian Ortega and Chan Sung-jung in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and his last shot at the featherweight title against Max Holloway also fell flat. But at last he said: In the bantamweight division, a chance wish is planned for an eventual championship shot.
Edgar defeated Pedro Munhoz in his 2020 debut (notably, he may have still been bigger than the former lightweight champion), winning Fight of the Year in his first UFC weight class. – Obtained the honor of knighthood.
This was his last gasp as a contender, ending his career with back-to-back knockout losses to Cory Sandhagen, Marlon Vera, and Chris Gutierrez, with a record of 24-11-1, seven knockouts, and four submission wins. It ended with that.
After retiring, when he's not taking his kids to wrestling practice, Edgar helps train locals in South Jersey and is opening a jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts school in Toms River “in the coming months.” I'm planning to open one.
Although Edgar is generally satisfied, he suspects the urge to compete in the cage again will always haunt him, whether he acts on it or not.
“I think no matter what, I'm always going to feel like that,” Edgar, 42, said. Be there and miss it.
“But I'm fine where I am. I have some other goals in mind, so now it's time to focus on those.”
