Frankie Edgar secured the final victory of his mixed martial arts career 3 ½ years ago, but Saturday’s revelation that he’ll be entering the UFC Hall of Fame brought back a familiar feeling.
“Coming home,” Edgar told The Post this week, after arriving back home in Toms River, N.J., from UFC 297 in Toronto, “I felt like I walked away with a win.”
The former UFC lightweight champion, who retired in November 2022 after taking a knockout loss at Madison Square Garden, will be inducted into the Modern Wing as part of the Class of 2024 as part of International Fight Week in the summer, UFC CEO Dana White said in a statement.
It’s an honor Edgar couldn’t have fathomed when he won his professional debut in The Bronx 19 years ago, when the UFC Hall of Fame consisted of just three men: Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn.
By the time Edgar shocked B.J. Penn to win the 155-pound title in April 2010, the Hall had just six members; only Gracie — the giant killer who unleashed Brazilian jiu-jitsu upon the combat sports world while winning three of the first four UFC tournaments — competed at under 205 pounds.
Since the UFC’s evolution from the 1990s’ no-holds-barred days to the modern MMA, it was the 5-foot-6 Edgar who became the greatest David among Goliaths.
“My whole life, I was a little guy, so I’ve always felt like I’ve been trying to prove doubters wrong because of my small stature,” said Edgar, who didn’t cut weight during his time as champion and was long considered a natural 135-pounder.
“That’s kind of how the UFC came onto the scene. That’s why, I think, it blew everybody’s mind that Royce Gracie, this 170-pound guy, [is] beating up 200-pound dudes, choking them out. That’s what really got the eyes on the UFC, and it’s kind of cool to have a little part in that [myself].”
Edgar claimed his championship from Penn — himself a challenge-seeker and former champion at 170 pounds who once took on future 205-pound champ Lyoto Machida at a pudgy 191 pounds — in a hotly debated decision before a more thorough defeat of the Hawaiian four months later.
What followed in 2011 were a pair of championship clashes that forever cemented Edgar’s place in MMA lore.
The champion’s first fresh challenger, Gray Maynard, was the only man to beat Edgar in the octagon, having won a decision in 2008.
Maynard, like Edgar a former standout collegiate wrestler, delivered a hellacious beating of the champ for the duration of the first round of their New Year’s Day 2011 rematch in one of the most lopsided rounds in the sport’s history.
That’s when the legend of Edgar’s grit was born, as he stormed back over the final 20 minutes to salvage a draw, retain his title, and set up a third fight in October of that year.
Again, Edgar ran into early trouble against Maynard and was forced to withstand an onslaught, but this time Edgar made his rival truly pay by knocking him out in the fourth round.
Edgar had a knack for performing better against opponents the second or third time he faced them, one which he attributed to the primary voice in his corner and the gym.
“I gotta give it up to my coach, Mark Henry,” Edgar said. “He’s always making these adjustments, and we were able to implement them. I think the more I get in [the cage] with someone [as an opponent], the cream rises to the top, and you find ways to figure it out.”
Beating Maynard proved to be his final win as a lightweight, as he dropped consecutive decisions against Benson Henderson.
Even against Henderson, a particularly large 155er who later in his career bounced between lightweight and welterweight, Edgar still has many convinced he was the rightful winner of their rematch following the competitive first matchup.
“I could even make an argument thinking I won the first fight,” Edgar said before quickly noting he’s not bitter. “I’m not one of those guys to sit there and complain. It is what it is at this point. But that first fight, if I didn’t get hit with an upkick, I was pretty much on my way to winning that second round, too. But the [second] fight, I thought I won four rounds to one, but it’s just the way it goes.”
After years of public cajoling, Edgar finally moved down to featherweight, largely because the immediate title shot against Jose Aldo he was granted was his fastest path back to UFC gold.
While competitive, the all-time great Aldo won a decision, but Edgar proved his worth at 145 pounds from 2013-17 by winning seven of his next eight — sandwiching another decision loss to Aldo — and staking his claim as the bona fide No. 2 of featherweight for five years.
When Conor McGregor completed his meteoric rise to the top by knockout out Aldo in December 2015, Edgar was the logical choice for his first title defense.
Although both men openly agreed to the matchup on social media, McGregor would never fight again at 145 pounds and the fight did not come to pass.
“I said ‘yes,’ he said ‘yes’ on Twitter, then Dana [White] put the kibosh on it,” Edgar said. “I don’t know, man. I guess it was going in a different direction. But, yeah, I missed that boat.”
Once the famously durable Edgar suffered (T)KO losses in consecutive years — to Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung in 2018 and 2019, respectively — and a final shot at the featherweight title against Max Holloway didn’t go his way, he finally gave the bantamweight division a chance wish designs on working his way to a final championship run.
Edgar edged his 2020 debut against Pedro Munhoz — who, notably, may still have been larger than the former lightweight champ — and picked up Fight of the Night honors in his first UFC weight class.
That proved to be his last gasp as a contender, as consecutive knockout losses to Cory Sandhagen, Marlon Vera and Chris Gutierrez wrapped up his career, ending with a 24-11-1 record with seven knockouts and four wins by submission.
In retirement, when not shuffling his children to wrestling practices, Edgar has helped train locals in South Jersey and plans to open a jiu-jitsu and MMA school in Toms River “in the next couple of months.”
While largely content, Edgar suspects the urge to compete in the cage again may always nag at him, regardless of if he ever acts upon it.
“I think I’ll always get that itch, no matter what,” said Edgar, 42. “You watch these fights, you watch these guys put on these great performances and especially being in the arena, man, you feel the energy in there, and you miss it.
“But I’m good where I’m at now. I have some other goals in mind, so now it’s time to direct my focus towards them.”