Frankie Edgar has no plans on retiring following his brutal KO loss to Cory Sandhagen at UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Volkov (UFC Vegas 18).
Frankie Edgar is a fighter who you will rarely hear a bad word about. For 14 years, he has been a fixture in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and has represented the brand well as a competitor, former champion, and now as a legend. But Father Time is undefeated, and at some point, Edgar will no longer be a competitor in the UFC.
Frankie Edgar will be turning 40 years old in October, and after being knocked out in the first round by a Cory Sandhagen flying knee at UFC Vegas 18, perhaps now is the time to walk away. But the man who holds the only opinion that matters sees things differently and has no plans of ending his career any time soon.
“I know if (my wife was) worried, like 100 percent worried about me, she would say it,” Edgar told told ESPN on Thursday. “But (coach) Mark (Henry) knows. I don’t care if it was my first loss or my last loss, I’m always thinking, ‘Losing sucks.’ I hate it. Everybody hates it. You don’t want to do anything after. You have thoughts like, ‘Man, I don’t want to do this.’ And Mark’s like, ‘Dude, what are you talking about? One fight back. One fight you win, and that erases that loss.’ So, I’m not thinking of stopping anytime – at least now. Not after this one.”
If Not Now, When Is the Right Time To Walk Away?
As we’ve seen over the years in this sport, it’s hard for a fighter to retire from competing. Even when released from the UFC, most aging fighters who are clearly on the decline continue their careers elsewhere to mixed results. As hard as it is to picture Frankie Edgar ever competing in another organization, it’s just as difficult for Edgar to picture himself transforming into the fighter who continues to get knocked out and who is unable to accept when it’s time to walk away on his own accord.
“I won’t be this guy that’s just constantly getting KO’d,” Edgar said. “I’m going to have to look myself in the mirror and figure something out if this keeps happening. I just don’t think the time is now. … I don’t know when it’ll happen. It’s just going to have to happen one day. It may be me, it may be my coaches (telling me to do it). I’m hoping it’s me first.
“I don’t want to be the guy where someone needs to tell me that I need to walk away,” Edgar continued. “But it may take that. I don’t know. The type of person I am, it may take my coach or my wife to be like, ‘Yo, it’s time to walk away.’ I just know that time’s not now. And they know that time’s not now as well.”
How much longer do you think Frankie Edgar will compete in the UFC?
