Daniel Cormier spoke about the options for Frankie Edgar’s retirement fight.
Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar is 4-6 in his last 10 fights and is coming off back-to-back highlight reel KO losses to Marlon Vera and Cory Sandhagen. Recently, the 40-year-old said he would like to fight one more time before calling it a career.
Edgar has said that he sees his last bout as a ‘legacy fight’ and wants it to go down at Madison Square Garden. The New Jersey-native also mentioned that he thought former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz would be the ideal dance partner for the occasion.
Someone who strongly disagrees with this is Cruz’s broadcast booth frenemy Daniel Cormier. On his DC & RC podcast, Cormier made it clear that he felt today’s version of ‘The Answer’ would be out of his depth against ‘The Dominator’.
“I tap out [on this fight],” said Cormier (ht BJ Penn). “I believe that these guys are in different places in their careers. Dominick Cruz is fighting the three or four-ranked guy in the world. The guy still wants to become a champion, while Frankie is talking about a retirement fight.”
“Frankie’s been great,” continued Cormier. “We love Frankie and would love to see him compete again in New York City. But, I don’t need to see him fight against a contender. I need him to fight someone else and hope that he can get a victory on his way out of the door.”
Edgar, a future UFC Hall of Fame inductee, first appeared for the UFC in 2007, beating Tyson Griffin by unanimous decision. In 2010 he beat B.J. Penn for the UFC’s 155 lb crown.
He immediately defended the title versus Penn and then fought to a draw with Gray Maynard (the only man to ever beat Edgar at this point in his career). Edgar then KO’d Maynard in their trilogy fight, capping off one of the more memorable rivalries in UFC history.
Edgar lost his title to Benson Henderson at UFC 150 in 2012. He then lost to Jose Aldo in a featherweight title fight. Edgar fought his way back to Aldo with wins over Charles Oliveira, B.J. Penn (for the third time), Cub Swanson, Urijiah Faber and Chad Mendes.
His rematch with Aldo, at UFC 200 in 2016, ended in a unanimous decision loss.
Since then Edgar has beaten Jeremy Stephens, Yair Rodriguez, Swanson (again) and Pedro Munhoz. His losses over that span include defeats to Brian Ortega, Max Holloway and Chan Sung Jung.
Edgar holds the record for total fight time in UFC history, clocking in at almost 8 hours of cage-time. Edgar is also tied with Nate Diaz for most Fight of the Night bonuses in UFC history (8).