Filed under: UFCThe week of a fight, the last place UFC lightweight Yves Edwards wants to be is in his own head. It’s a scary place sometimes, and also a tough place to escape from.
“I obsess over the stupidest things you can imagine,” Edwards said. “…
The week of a fight, the last place UFC lightweight Yves Edwards wants to be is in his own head. It’s a scary place sometimes, and also a tough place to escape from.
“I obsess over the stupidest things you can imagine,” Edwards said. “I will obsess over the color of towels in my bathroom, or what kind of soap they have [in the hotel]. I had this one soap this one time and that wasn’t a great performance, so I can’t use this soap again. It’s stupid, and it’s just a distraction.”
With nearly 60 pro fights in a career that’s spanned almost 14 years, at least Edwards has had plenty of practice in dealing with his own fight week neurosis. Now he knows how to manage it. For starters, he can bring his own soap. He can also rely on his friends, like Strikeforce welterweight Tyron Woodley, to keep him mentally occupied.
Otherwise, Edwards said, it can get out of hand in a hurry. For instance, say a certain friend is coming to see the fight. Then Edwards starts to think about how he’s never won a fight with that guy in the audience. Maybe he’s bad luck. Maybe he’s cursed.
“But then, I don’t want to tell my friends not to come see my fights, so I have to stay away from that stuff,” said Edwards, who faces Rafaello Oliveira at UFC on Versus 6 this Saturday night.
“I can catch myself doing it a lot. Stopping it is the hard part. Common sense and rationalization — I’m a pretty rational person when I’m not in this mode — that kicks in a little bit and I realize that the color of my underwear has nothing to do with how hard I’ve prepared for this fight or how focused I am. But it’s just the irrational part of my brain, that part kicks in first. I have to talk myself down from it sometimes.”
At least Edwards has experience in his favor. Wednesday marks the ten-year anniversary of his UFC debut — a losing effort against Matt Serra at UFC 33 — and Saturday’s fight comes just one day after his 35th birthday. To Edwards, doing the math on his career numbers and realizing just how long he’s been at it comes as “kind of a surprise,” he said.
“I still feel like I’m 26. …The guy that was making his debut in the UFC, he didn’t know half the things I know now.”
But as Edwards prepares to take on Oliveira — a Brazilian fighter who he actually trained alongside of and “traded a few secrets” with in the past — he does so coming off a knockout loss to Sam Stout that UFC president Dana White called “one of the nastiest I’ve ever seen.”
It might not be a must-win fight for Edwards, but 35-year-old fighters can’t afford to take too many steps backwards, and he knows it.
“The thing is, nobody gets cut off a win,” Edwards said. “Not unless you’ve done something and screwed up. That’s my only concern, is going out there and winning, keeping my job, and keep moving up the ladder.”
The fact that he went from a pay-per-view card at UFC 131 to the prelim portion of a UFC on Versus card doesn’t worry him, he insisted, just like it doesn’t matter that he knows Oliveira to be “a pretty nice guy.”
“When it comes to the fight game that means absolutely nothing to me,” he said. “… This fight could be behind a Wal-Mart. All I have to worry about is, that’s the guy I’m fighting. That’s all that matters.”
That, and that he remembers not to obsess about the brand of soap in his hotel. After a week of battling himself, the fight should be a relief.
Filed under: UFCCung Le isn’t the only fighter to find out the hard way that acting and professional fighting don’t always mix, especially when done in the wrong order, but at least he used it as a learning experience, he said at Tuesday’s UFC 139 pres…
Cung Le isn’t the only fighter to find out the hard way that acting and professional fighting don’t always mix, especially when done in the wrong order, but at least he used it as a learning experience, he said at Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference.
“I actually learned my lesson the first time when I came back against Scott Smith,” Le said. “I wasn’t very busy training when I was on the movie set. I was just more focused on getting into character.”
He started off well enough against Smith in their first meeting in December of 2009. But his lack of training caught up to him in the final round, and Smith came out of nowhere to score the upset via knockout of a fading, winded Le.
When they signed on to face each other in a rematch some seven months later, he had every opportunity to make the same mistake. Fortunately for Le, experience — particularly the painful kind – is an excellent teacher.
“I was doing some film work, [but] I made sure I trained every day and I stayed in shape,” he said, adding that this time around, as he prepares to face Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 in San Jose, Calif., he’s been in the gym since February.
“I am focused on this fight, so right now it’s all about being an MMA fighter,” said Le.
For Silva, who stepped in as a replacement for the injured Vitor Belfort, the stakes are even higher. UFC president Dana White has made it clear that he thinks Silva might need to hang up the gloves after his knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132, and this could be the Brazilian’s last chance to prove to his boss that he still has some fight left in him.
“I love fighting. I love the sport. I grew up inside the ring, inside the Octagon. I want to fight as long as I can,” Silva told reporters.
When asked if he felt that his back was against the wall in the fight with Le, he didn’t argue. “Some guys fight better in that position. I’m thinking I am one of [those] guys,” he said.
Le, a decorated Sanshou kickboxer who turned to MMA relatively late in life and fought the entirety of his four-year career in Strikeforce up until this point, said he specifically sought out a deal with the UFC because he wanted to fight in the Octagon, and not simply because he wanted to be on this card in his adopted hometown of San Jose.
“It really means a lot,” he said. “I’ve fought on many platforms, different styles, but being a UFC fighter now, being the co-main event, definitely is a dream come true. Just earlier this morning I was looking at the picture where I was at the refugee camp, and now being in the co-main event of the UFC, it’s a dream come true. I’m very excited and I’m going to be ready to rock and roll and give the fans what they want to see.”
Filed under: UFCFor the first time in a little over two years, Dan Henderson is a UFC fighter again. Judging by his gentle ribbing of UFC president Dana White during Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference in San Jose, not too much has changed about his rel…
For the first time in a little over two years, Dan Henderson is a UFC fighter again. Judging by his gentle ribbing of UFC president Dana White during Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference in San Jose, not too much has changed about his relationship with his boss.
“I guess it’s a little bit ironic that every time I win a title somewhere Dana has to buy the company to get me back,” Henderson joked before adding that he was glad to be back since “the best match-ups for me are here in the UFC.”
As for White, who’s traded verbal barbs with Henderson before, during, and after contentious contract negotiations in the past, he seems eager to let bygones be bygones. Especially now that Henderson is back in the fold and headlining UFC 139 against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
“Dan and I get along just fine,” said White. “We butt heads here and there, but we get along great. I respect him as a fighter. He’s a durable, tough guy who’s been out there beating the best in the world. I can’t hate him for knocking Fedor [Emelianenko] out either, so…I’m happy to have him back.”
Henderson gives up his Strikeforce light heavyweight title to return to the UFC for the first time since his knockout victory over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. After beating “Feijao” Cavalcante for the Strikeforce belt and then knocking out Emelianenko in a non-title affair, Henderson said, he “wasn’t excited about anybody coming up that I might be fighting other than the guys that were going to be in the UFC.”
One fight he is excited about, it seems, is a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
“There’s only one fight that I’d probably fight at 185 [pounds] and he won’t fight right now, I guess,” Henderson said in reference to Silva, adding that the champion “said he’s hurt.”
“Everybody could speculate, and I’d be one of those same people, but that’s the fight that we originally talked about,” Henderson said. “But evidently he hurt himself.”
Sensing perhaps that Henderson wasn’t totally sold on the injury story, White stepped in to back up his champion, insisting that Silva was suffering from a shoulder injury after his win over Yushin Okami at UFC 134 and had been told by his doctor to take eight weeks off.
“Listen, Anderson Silva’s fought everybody,” White said. “It’s not like he’s ducking fights. He’s never ducked a fight and when he’s ready, and if this thing goes right, and if Dan wants to cut that weight, then we can talk about Anderson Silva.”
Of course, to even make it a conversation worth having the 41-year-old Henderson first has to get past Rua on November 19. Even if he does, and if he continues to lobby for a rematch with Silva, the UFC might rightfully wonder whether Henderson will be sufficiently interested in sticking around at middleweight should he win the title.
After all, there’s not much benefit to giving a guy at shot at the 185-pound strap if, by his own admission, he’s “not fond of cutting weight anymore.” At least that’s something he won’t have to worry about for the next couple of months. The fight with Rua may not require him to drop too many pounds, but it will take just about everything he’s got if he wants to come out on top.
In the UFC 135 pre-fight press conference UFC president Dana White said he could tell the Jones-Jackson main event was a “breakthrough fight” because of all the celebrities who were willing to fly to Denver — Denver, of all places! — just to see it.
I’m not saying that’s not true, but I am saying that maybe you don’t want to spit out the name of the host city like you can’t believe any famous people would be willing to go there. Denver’s actually a pretty great city — one with pro sports teams and all that jazz. Maybe the nightclubs don’t stay open as long as the David Spade types would like, but the fact that they might be willing to make the flight anyway is maybe not as important to John Q. Fight Fan as it is to White. Like any main event, it’s a big deal because it’s a good fight, not the other way around.
But now that another UFC event is in the books and the dust has settled on the tiny, godforsaken hamlet of Denver, it’s time again to sort through the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: Jon Jones
No surprise here. The champ defended his belt in dominant fashion, showing that he could do just about anything he felt like to ‘Rampage’ Jackson. Crawling around on all fours? Sure. Tossing Jackson over his back after the end of a round? Why not. Jackson could hardly lay a glove on Jones until he went to pat him on the shoulder and give him his respect after it was all over. The scary thing is he’s only 24 years old. If I were a light heavyweight in the UFC, I’d either want to fight him right away, before he has a chance to get any better, or else much further in the future, after stardom may have taken its toll on him. If you get him somewhere in the middle, as Rashad Evans probably will, it could be big trouble. Now that the mere mention of Evans’ name seems to upset Jones, psychological warfare could be “Suga’s” best hope against the champ.
Biggest Loser: Takanori Gomi
Not only did he lose his second straight fight and his third in four UFC attempts, but he got absolutely throttled by Nate Diaz. In a lot of ways it was reminiscent of his loss to Nick Diaz, only without the brief period of effective offense in the beginning (or, hopefully, the eye-popping drug test results later). It’s hard not to wonder where this leaves the 33-year-old Gomi. His UFC run has been a disappointment and it’s starting to look like his Pride glory days were as good as it’s ever going to get for him. The UFC may or may not keep him around just long enough to fight in the Tokyo event, but he doesn’t seem to have much of a long-term future in the UFC. It’s a shame, but it’s not terribly surprising. The game has changed a lot since 2005, and very few fighters have managed to successfully change with it all the way into the present.
Most Improved: Mark Hunt
I’m not sure when Hunt learned to wrestle, but it must have been very, very recently. He didn’t just escape the mount and stuff a couple of Ben Rothwell’s takedowns, he even got a couple double-legs of his own. Who saw that coming? I’ve heard some people grumbling about his cardio down the stretch, but after hitting Rothwell with everything but a paternity suit, I don’t blame him for being tired. I’m a little amazed that Rothwell took so many bombs from the heavy-handed Hunt, but I’m even more amazed at Hunt’s overall improvement as a fighter in the last year. You factor in the feel-good story about him turning down a UFC payoff for a chance to earn a spot on the roster, and you’ve got a heavyweight who’s very quietly earned the admiration and respect of his peers.
Best Worst Use of Ambiguous Phrasing: Matt Hughes
He’s not retiring. No way. He just wants to be put on the shelf, whatever that means for a nearly 38-year-old ex-champion. Dana White’s known Hughes for a long time, so I’m inclined to go with his translation: Hughes just can’t bring himself to say the word ‘retirement,’ even after his second straight first-round knockout loss. You don’t ask to be put on the shelf if you’re dying to fight soon. And if you’re not trying to squeeze a couple more fights in before Father Time does even more of a number on you, doesn’t that mean you’re basically easing into retirement like a senior citizen into a water aerobics class? Probably, yeah. And that’s okay. If Hughes doesn’t want to say the words, he doesn’t have to. Not right now, anyway. But six months from now when he dozes off in a recliner while watching a fishing show in the middle of the day, that’s when it’s going to hit him: my God, this is what retired people do. Maybe by then it won’t seem so bad.
Most Impressive in Defeat: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
It might have been hard to tell while he was standing in the cage with Jones, but Jackson hasn’t looked that good for a couple years. We’ve seen many different versions of ‘Rampage’ over the course of his career, from the hungry, driven one to the plodding, barely interested variety. This time he moved well, was in excellent shape, and stayed in attack mode even when Jones was sticking him at will. It’s just a shame that it took a huge title fight to bring out that level of interest in him, and that it did him little good against an opponent as talented as Jones. But look on the bright side: maybe this will show Jackson how good he can be when he puts forth the effort. He says he wants ‘Shogun’ Rua in Japan, even though Rua already has a date with Dan Henderson coming up. But the mere fact that he’s asking for specific names and locations for his next fight at least tells us that he’s interested in MMA again. Let’s hope that lasts.
Least Impressive in Victory: Travis Browne
By the third round of his heavyweight tilt with Rob Broughton, Browne was content to get the top position and move only as much as was absolutely necessary in order to stay there. He already had the decision locked up, plus he was pretty tuckered out, so there was some logic to it all. That’s cool — and, hey, it’s better to win a fight like that than lose it — but it doesn’t exactly propel you up the heavyweight ranks. Browne’s knockout wins over Stefan Struve and James McSweeney have established his bona fides as an action fighter, so what gives? Maybe he ran out of gas or simply felt like he had to play it safe against Broughton, but either way this wasn’t exactly one for the highlight reel.
Most Surprising: Takeya Mizugaki
Judging by pre and post-fight appearances alone, I don’t know if anyone at UFC 135 enjoyed themselves as much as Mizugaki. I guess it helps when you win your fight, especially via dominating second-round TKO. Oddsmakers gave Mizugaki the slight edge coming into the fight, but he had Escovedo’s number early and managed to strike a perfect balance between recklessness and strategic aggression. Good thing too, since Mizugaki needed that win. It was the first time he’s finished a fight since 2008 and his most impressive performance yet in the UFC. Plus he just seemed to be having so much fun, and who doesn’t like to see that?
Biggest Matchmaking Headache: Josh Koscheck
Koscheck may very well be the second-best welterweight in the UFC, but there is absolutely zero interest in seeing him fight Georges St-Pierre a third time, so what now? He’s open to a temporary move to middleweight for the sake of a just-for-the-hell-of-it fight with Chris Leben, and maybe that’s the best thing the UFC can do with him. But once that’s over you still have a guy who’s probably too small to make a run at middleweight, but will only knock off potential contenders if you leave him at welterweight. The good news is that, with his abrasive personality and willingness to alienate people, Koscheck can always talk himself into new rivalries. And who knows, maybe he can tread water that way until GSP eventually moves up to middleweight and it’s open season in the UFC’s 170-pound class again. You know he can’t be the only fighter waiting for that day to come.
In the UFC 135 pre-fight press conference UFC president Dana White said he could tell the Jones-Jackson main event was a “breakthrough fight” because of all the celebrities who were willing to fly to Denver — Denver, of all places! — just to see it.
I’m not saying that’s not true, but I am saying that maybe you don’t want to spit out the name of the host city like you can’t believe any famous people would be willing to go there. Denver’s actually a pretty great city — one with pro sports teams and all that jazz. Maybe the nightclubs don’t stay open as long as the David Spade types would like, but the fact that they might be willing to make the flight anyway is maybe not as important to John Q. Fight Fan as it is to White. Like any main event, it’s a big deal because it’s a good fight, not the other way around.
But now that another UFC event is in the books and the dust has settled on the tiny, godforsaken hamlet of Denver, it’s time again to sort through the biggest winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: Jon Jones
No surprise here. The champ defended his belt in dominant fashion, showing that he could do just about anything he felt like to ‘Rampage’ Jackson. Crawling around on all fours? Sure. Tossing Jackson over his back after the end of a round? Why not. Jackson could hardly lay a glove on Jones until he went to pat him on the shoulder and give him his respect after it was all over. The scary thing is he’s only 24 years old. If I were a light heavyweight in the UFC, I’d either want to fight him right away, before he has a chance to get any better, or else much further in the future, after stardom may have taken its toll on him. If you get him somewhere in the middle, as Rashad Evans probably will, it could be big trouble. Now that the mere mention of Evans’ name seems to upset Jones, psychological warfare could be “Suga’s” best hope against the champ.
Biggest Loser: Takanori Gomi
Not only did he lose his second straight fight and his third in four UFC attempts, but he got absolutely throttled by Nate Diaz. In a lot of ways it was reminiscent of his loss to Nick Diaz, only without the brief period of effective offense in the beginning (or, hopefully, the eye-popping drug test results later). It’s hard not to wonder where this leaves the 33-year-old Gomi. His UFC run has been a disappointment and it’s starting to look like his Pride glory days were as good as it’s ever going to get for him. The UFC may or may not keep him around just long enough to fight in the Tokyo event, but he doesn’t seem to have much of a long-term future in the UFC. It’s a shame, but it’s not terribly surprising. The game has changed a lot since 2005, and very few fighters have managed to successfully change with it all the way into the present.
Most Improved: Mark Hunt
I’m not sure when Hunt learned to wrestle, but it must have been very, very recently. He didn’t just escape the mount and stuff a couple of Ben Rothwell’s takedowns, he even got a couple double-legs of his own. Who saw that coming? I’ve heard some people grumbling about his cardio down the stretch, but after hitting Rothwell with everything but a paternity suit, I don’t blame him for being tired. I’m a little amazed that Rothwell took so many bombs from the heavy-handed Hunt, but I’m even more amazed at Hunt’s overall improvement as a fighter in the last year. You factor in the feel-good story about him turning down a UFC payoff for a chance to earn a spot on the roster, and you’ve got a heavyweight who’s very quietly earned the admiration and respect of his peers.
Best Worst Use of Ambiguous Phrasing: Matt Hughes
He’s not retiring. No way. He just wants to be put on the shelf, whatever that means for a nearly 38-year-old ex-champion. Dana White’s known Hughes for a long time, so I’m inclined to go with his translation: Hughes just can’t bring himself to say the word ‘retirement,’ even after his second straight first-round knockout loss. You don’t ask to be put on the shelf if you’re dying to fight soon. And if you’re not trying to squeeze a couple more fights in before Father Time does even more of a number on you, doesn’t that mean you’re basically easing into retirement like a senior citizen into a water aerobics class? Probably, yeah. And that’s okay. If Hughes doesn’t want to say the words, he doesn’t have to. Not right now, anyway. But six months from now when he dozes off in a recliner while watching a fishing show in the middle of the day, that’s when it’s going to hit him: my God, this is what retired people do. Maybe by then it won’t seem so bad.
Most Impressive in Defeat: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
It might have been hard to tell while he was standing in the cage with Jones, but Jackson hasn’t looked that good for a couple years. We’ve seen many different versions of ‘Rampage’ over the course of his career, from the hungry, driven one to the plodding, barely interested variety. This time he moved well, was in excellent shape, and stayed in attack mode even when Jones was sticking him at will. It’s just a shame that it took a huge title fight to bring out that level of interest in him, and that it did him little good against an opponent as talented as Jones. But look on the bright side: maybe this will show Jackson how good he can be when he puts forth the effort. He says he wants ‘Shogun’ Rua in Japan, even though Rua already has a date with Dan Henderson coming up. But the mere fact that he’s asking for specific names and locations for his next fight at least tells us that he’s interested in MMA again. Let’s hope that lasts.
Least Impressive in Victory: Travis Browne
By the third round of his heavyweight tilt with Rob Broughton, Browne was content to get the top position and move only as much as was absolutely necessary in order to stay there. He already had the decision locked up, plus he was pretty tuckered out, so there was some logic to it all. That’s cool — and, hey, it’s better to win a fight like that than lose it — but it doesn’t exactly propel you up the heavyweight ranks. Browne’s knockout wins over Stefan Struve and James McSweeney have established his bona fides as an action fighter, so what gives? Maybe he ran out of gas or simply felt like he had to play it safe against Broughton, but either way this wasn’t exactly one for the highlight reel.
Most Surprising: Takeya Mizugaki
Judging by pre and post-fight appearances alone, I don’t know if anyone at UFC 135 enjoyed themselves as much as Mizugaki. I guess it helps when you win your fight, especially via dominating second-round TKO. Oddsmakers gave Mizugaki the slight edge coming into the fight, but he had Escovedo’s number early and managed to strike a perfect balance between recklessness and strategic aggression. Good thing too, since Mizugaki needed that win. It was the first time he’s finished a fight since 2008 and his most impressive performance yet in the UFC. Plus he just seemed to be having so much fun, and who doesn’t like to see that?
Biggest Matchmaking Headache: Josh Koscheck
Koscheck may very well be the second-best welterweight in the UFC, but there is absolutely zero interest in seeing him fight Georges St-Pierre a third time, so what now? He’s open to a temporary move to middleweight for the sake of a just-for-the-hell-of-it fight with Chris Leben, and maybe that’s the best thing the UFC can do with him. But once that’s over you still have a guy who’s probably too small to make a run at middleweight, but will only knock off potential contenders if you leave him at welterweight. The good news is that, with his abrasive personality and willingness to alienate people, Koscheck can always talk himself into new rivalries. And who knows, maybe he can tread water that way until GSP eventually moves up to middleweight and it’s open season in the UFC’s 170-pound class again. You know he can’t be the only fighter waiting for that day to come.
After a dominant victory by UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in Denver at UFC 135, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look at whether we’ve learned anything from the rise and fall of his would-be superstar predecessors. And yeah, we also pause to wonder how Steven Seagal keeps getting backstage to make smug remarks about fighters who wisely refuse him entry to their locker rooms. Just good clean fun, really.
After a dominant victory by UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in Denver at UFC 135, the MMA Wrap-Up returns to look at whether we’ve learned anything from the rise and fall of his would-be superstar predecessors. And yeah, we also pause to wonder how Steven Seagal keeps getting backstage to make smug remarks about fighters who wisely refuse him entry to their locker rooms. Just good clean fun, really.
Filed under: UFCDENVER — After getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck near the end of the first round at UFC 135, Matt Hughes specifically said he was “not retiring.”
“I’m going to tell the UFC to put me up on a shelf and we’ll see what happens after t…
DENVER — After getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck near the end of the first round at UFC 135, Matt Hughes specifically said he was “not retiring.”
“I’m going to tell the UFC to put me up on a shelf and we’ll see what happens after that,” he said.
But to UFC president Dana White, it sounded like perhaps the closest that the über-competitive Hughes could ever bring himself to admitting that his time in the sport may be done.
“I think he’s going to retire,” White said at Saturday night’s post-fight press conference. “I just don’t think Hughes wants to say the word ‘retire,’ is what I think.”
Hughes didn’t make an appearance at the post-fight presser, though he offered his services if needed, White said. The UFC boss told him he could skip it, but he also told reporters that he expects to have a conversation with the former welterweight champion soon that will finally put the matter of his uncertain future to rest.
“There was a lot of talk that this was the last fight on his contract; I don’t know if that’s true or not, because he’s a guy I’ve never worried about last fights or whatever,” White said. “…He’s going to fly out to Vegas in the next month or so and sit down and talk, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to retire — without saying ‘retirement.'”
After hurting Hughes with a solid right hand and then finishing him with hammer fists in the final seconds of the opening round, Koscheck said he expressed his respect and admiration for Hughes in a private conversation inside the cage.
“I just told Matt, ‘Hey, thanks for taking the fight. I know it was a great honor to fight you. You’re a true champion and you’ll always be respected, so thanks for taking the fight,'” he said, after giving Hughes credit for a good game plan in the first half of the round.
Had things gone the other way in Denver, White remained convinced that there was no way Hughes would have even considered retirement.
“I honestly think that if Matt Hughes would have beat Josh Koscheck tonight, we’d be talking about who Matt was fighting next,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. I know that guy, I’ve known him for over ten years, and he’s a competitor. He’s really, really upset.”
The bout was the 25th in Hughes’ storied UFC career, and his 54th overall. It was also the last on his current UFC contract, though he told reporters before the bout that they shouldn’t expect to hear him make any decision one way or the other about his future in the cage immediately after the fight.
That’s fine if it helps him cope, White suggested, but he’s pretty sure he knows which direction Hughes is headed now.
“He’s really upset,” White said. “He wanted to win this last fight. I’m almost 100 percent positive he’s going to retire. I don’t think he’s going to do anything else.”
The week of a fight, the last place UFC lightweight Yves Edwards wants to be is in his own head. It’s a scary place sometimes, and also a tough place to escape from.
For the first time in a little over two years, 
In the 
DENVER — After getting knocked out by