Frankie Edgar will be walking away from MMA after his UFC 281 fight against Chris Gutierrez.
Edgar has been in the UFC since 2007 and is the former UFC lightweight champion while also having fought for the featherweight strap. He has since dropped down to bantamweight and will end his career on November 12 against Gutierrez and Edgar says he knew this was likely it after his last fight.
“It’s a lot of things I would think,” Edgar told MMA Fighting. “Kind of the way my fights have been going as of late led to that as well. My body, I am getting older. I feel great. In camp, I’m such a strong-minded person that I always have great camps. I always feel good but the body takes its toll throughout the years and I just want to move on and see what’s next.
“I know I can’t fight forever. I could definitely string it on a couple more years probably but I know I’ll never move on to what’s the next chapter in my life,” Edgar continued. “I think now I’m being selfish when I’m still trying to chase this and I’ve got a family and kids that want to have goals of their own. They want me around and probably want me to be able to speak good and have my wits about me. I just know it’s probably the best time.”
Frankie Edgar Would Rather Be Safe Than Sorry
Although Frankie Edgar is still a ranked bantamweight and had success against Marlon Vera in his last fight, he knows his time is now. He says he didn’t want to be one of the fighters that fans are pleading for him to retire, instead, he would rather go out a fight too early than a fight too late.
“I don’t want to be that guy,” Edgar said. “It’s not fair to put my family through that either. My pride doesn’t want to deal with that either. I feel like I can still hang with the best in the world. [But] I think in the past, I would have won those fights, and now I’m not winning those fights. I don’t know if that’s the way time goes or guys are getting better or that’s the breaks of this game. Now’s the time. We get one more in New York, right in my backyard, a lot of history there. I think it’s a good sendoff.”
Frankie Edgar is 24-10-1 and on a two-fight losing skid and is coming off back-to-back KO losses to Vera and Cory Sandhagen. Prior to that, he beat Pedro Munhoz by split decision in his bantamweight debut. In his career, Edgar has notable wins over BJ Penn, Charles Oliveira, Urijah Faber, Gray Maynard, and Yair Rodriguez among others.\
There has definitely been their fair share of fighters of have competed way too long. Do you agree with Frankie Edgar hanging it up now?
