Midnight Mania! ‘Heartbroken’ Edgar Reacts To Retirement KO Loss

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Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Things didn’t go according to plan for Frankie Edgar at UFC 281.

Edgar entered his Madison Square Garden fight having lost two in a row, and at 41 years of age, “The Answer” recognized that it was time to retire. Ideally, he would done so with a (nearly) hometown victory, but Chris Gutierrez interrupted with a perfectly timed jump knee in the very first round (HIGHLIGHTS). To make matters more difficult, Edgar’s family was there live for his final walk and performance.

That’s a difficult situation for anyone, let alone a fighter so accustomed to winning at the highest level. Speaking on his podcast The Champ & The Tramp, the former champion and likely future Hall of Famer talked about how well all of his training went … up until it all went wrong.

“Obviously, (I’m) heartbroken,” Edgar said (via MMAJunkie). “That’s not the way I wanted it to go, but that’s the way it goes. I had a great week, awesome week out there. It was incredible, the love I got from everybody. The UFC gave me love, the little video that they did. From my peers, my peers are the most important. … I was zooming in the back. I felt like I was on in the back. I go out there and boom. Obviously, you saw it. Everybody saw it.

“It f—king sucks but how can I complain, to be honest?” Edgar said. “People were cheering my name the whole time before, during, after. I worked hard to get where I got, like f—king hard, very hard. I sacrificed a lot in my life. I put my all into my athletic career since Day 1, but who am I to complain? There are people out there who work hard and they just make it by. I know both sides of that. I’m just trying to be grateful for what I accomplished, for the ride I had.”

Replying to Edgar’s post on Instagram, former Lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos wrote, “When I was there to help you for one of your title defenses, it was crazy to me how hard you worked. Enjoy your retirement brother. Well deserved. #legend”

Insomnia

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Israel Adesanya has drawn attention to his fifth round against Kelvin Gastelum while protesting his recent stoppage loss, and the former champ does have a point about who was given more opportunity to survive.

Fight Circus CEO puts on bizarre fights and apparently partakes in them too. What a legendary weirdo! Dana White would never.

Nate Diaz has to have hit his quota for scuffles by now right? This is like number 37 of 2022 alone.

Congrats to the Dober family!

Jack Slack has a quote describing One Championship along the lines of, “Keep taking rich people’s money and giving it to Rodtang!” Midnight Mania endorses this message as well.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

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I love the lead leg side kicks and feints that build off that weapon. High level!

A lovely check hook stops the charge:

Random Land

A new way to eat eggs.

Midnight Music: Blues rock, 1967

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.