Many have questioned the fighting future of Frankie Edgar following his knockout loss to Marlon Vera at UFC 268 earlier this month. While some believe that it may be time for the former UFC lightweight champion to hang it up MMA analyst Chael Sonnen thinks Edgar showed us enough in his loss to continue fighting.
Edgar, who was already coming off a disastrous knockout loss to Cory Sandhagen back in February, was in control during his matchup with Vera last weekend. The veteran’s pace, precision, and top game allowed him to jump out ahead of Vera on the scorecards and line himself up for a key decision win. However, Vera found a window of opportunity to land a brutal front kick to Edgar’s face with just over a minute left to stop the former champion.
Considering Edgar is now 40 years of age and coming off back-to-back knockout defeats the MMA community has wondered if “The Answer” should call it quits. Sonnen has been one of Edgar’s biggest supporters over the years — even calling Frankie his favorite fighter — and believes that the veteran showed enough in his matchup against Vera to ward off the retirement talk for now.
“Frankie won every bit of that fight,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Frankie won every exchange, every round, and every minute of that fight. He lost one second of it – one second, and boom: kicked in the mouth, falls down, fight gets stopped. That’s a hard way to go out. Frankie definitely proved to us he could still do this.
“He definitely proved to us he still trains, he’s still in great shape, he’s got the speed, he’s got the power, he’s got the range. His boxing was on point digging to the body. Frankie looked great. He lost one second. We don’t know if we’re going to see a future Hall of Famer, a former champion of the world again because he lost one second of a 13 and a half minute fight? Man, that’s tough.”
There’s really no telling what Edgar might decide to do moving forward. If a future win doesn’t land him back in title contention then he could decide to walk away. Either way, it’s a decision that is completely up to the former UFC champion.
“Very tough conversation: Are we there yet with Frankie?” Sonnen said. “I hope not. I do have a hard time answering the second part of the question: If this isn’t it for Frankie, I must also be able to submit for you then, what is next? I’ve never felt that Frankie, my favorite fighter, has done a very good job of steering his career. He does not get the game – he does not play the media.
“He is a blue collar, straight-up competitor. Shake hands before, shake hands after, walk away and live with the result. That’s the wrestler in him. I hope he breaks from that ideology because nobody can answer the question of what is next for Frankie, what should be next for Frankie, what makes sense to keep Frankie around and have him go out and try one more time, better than Frankie.”
What say you, Maniacs? Did you see enough out of Edgar at UFC 268 to see him keep fighting? Should he?
Sound off!