Hall Of Fame
Frankie Edgar Talks UFC Hall Of Fame And Retirement
Former Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar Reflects On His Hall Of Fame Induction And Life After Fighting
It may be a generic question, but always a necessary one for a fighter fairly new to the retirement life.
So, Frankie Edgar, have you gotten the itch at all?
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“Going to the events, watching some fights on my couch, it definitely stirs up a little something, but not enough to make any calls, I guess you could say,” said the former lightweight champ and featherweight and bantamweight contender who gets inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this Thursday in Las Vegas.
Frankie Edgar Named To UFC Hall Of Fame
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Frankie Edgar Named To UFC Hall Of Fame
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I ask if his wife, Renee, is in the room.
“Yeah, she was,” laughs Edgar, but while he will be all-fighter until the day he dies, he’s also a rational man who knew the right time to walk away. It doesn’t hurt that the 42-year-old, who retired after a November 2022 loss to Chris Gutierrez, has been quite busy since putting down the gloves.
There’s his Frankie Edgar Iron Academy school in his native Toms River that’s opening in August, his Champ and The Tramp podcast, his acting role in the 2023 film The Bastard Sons, and, of course, being a husband and a father to three kids.
“I like to be busy,” Edgar said. “I don't like the downtime, so I'm in the gym helping guys train, my kids are in sports heavy now, so I'm constantly busy with that stuff, and then obviously trying to open the school. So my time is definitely not just hanging around doing nothing. I'm not that type of guy. I get too bored.”
He will have to make time for some R&R this week, though, as he gets his well-deserved place with the greats of the sport. It’s a trip to Vegas for something other than a fistfight, and that’s got to be nice for the man who went 8-4-1 in the fight capital of the world.
“It is, and most of the people that are going to be there are the people that used to come to all my fights,” he said. “So it's going to be a little weird to be around these people and not have that nervous energy because we have a fight coming this weekend. (Laughs) So I have a little nervous energy because of the speech and all that stuff, but nothing like a fight.”
Just like one of his fights, expect Edgar to be ready to shine when the lights are on, but it has to be surreal that something he did for so many years for the love of the game turned into a career and then recognition as one of the best to ever do it.
“I was honored,” said Edgar. “The people that have been in the Hall of Fame are the who's who of this sport, and just to be mentioned among these people is…I guess it never was my mission to set out to be a Hall of Famer. I just wanted to do this. I enjoyed it. Once I got into it, I knew I wanted to be a champion and I wanted to always win. And those accolades usually lead to the Hall of Fame. So I guess mission accomplished.”
Frankie Edgar Talks Hall of Fame Induction
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Frankie Edgar Talks Hall of Fame Induction
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Suffice to say that Edgar wasn’t picturing this moment when he was a union plumber nursing a broken orbital bone and pocketing a whopping $60 for his first fight against Eric Uresk in the summer of 2005. His future wife was there that night, and for the nights to come, from the regional scene to the biggest venues in the world. If there was another HOF plaque to give, Edgar believes his bride should get it.
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“I guess she'll wear the jacket,” Edgar laughs. “She's been through it all. She's a ride or die. She's seen my ups and downs and the sacrifices and all that. And she made sacrifices, too, so it's definitely not a single man pursuit.”
That’s for sure, yet from the moment “The Answer” made his Octagon debut in a Fight of the Night war with Tyson Griffin at UFC 67 in 2007, you knew he was special. Special enough to be a Hall of Famer? He didn’t know. He just knew he loved to fight.
“I felt like I just found MMA when I started doing it,” said Edgar. “When I first got into the UFC, I didn't know who Lorenzo Fertitta was. (Laughs) He tried to talk to me after my fight and I sent him away at first. They said, ‘Dude, you can't do that. That's Lorenzo.’ So I was just so new to it. I worked as a plumber, and I still had to go to work on Monday, so I was doing it because I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and then once I got the taste, I wanted to be a champion right away. But the Hall of Fame was never on the list. I guess you start hearing the rumblings later on in the career and you hope you get the consideration. But yeah, I'm just happy that it happened. I’m honored.”
The honor was all ours, Mr. Edgar. So if we started with a generic question, why don’t we end it with one, as I asked what fight of his would he put in a time capsule to say, this is who I was?
“I think you could pick any one of my fights and see what type of fighter I am,” said Edgar. “My first fight in the UFC shows you a lot of the type of person I am; the way I fight, the heart I have. Obviously, those Gray Maynard fights, taking the damage and finding a way to come back and win and knock him out in the third fight. So those are definitely good ones. But I fight one way and put my all into it, and I think you could see that in all my fights.”
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