On 10-year UFC anniversary, what does Frankie Edgar remember, regret and wish he could do again?

The estimated jackpot for Saturday’s New Jersey Lottery Power Ball is a cool $229 million. A random fact, admittedly, but a pertinent one all the same.

Why? Because for a certain denizen of the Garden State who so happens to earn a buck in an eminently hazardous industry, even that scarcely fathomable figure could not sufficiently compel him to coast blissfully into retirement.

That man is Frankie Edgar (21-5-1 MMA, 15-5-1 UFC). The former UFC lightweight champion and current featherweight contender has been fighting professionally since 2005 and, on this day 10 years ago, he first entered the octagon.

With a decade in the world’s most exacting crucible for combat sports banked and – unquestionably – nothing left to prove, Edgar’s reasons to stay competing at the zenith of MMA are the exact same as those that drew him to the sport in the first place: an innate desire to compete.

For all the seismic changes MMA and, indeed, the UFC have undergone during his time with the promotion, Edgar’s passion for the game has not once wavered. As such, the years have flown by, and all the money in the world, however vast, wouldn’t be enough for him to hang it all up. He still can’t quite believe life unfolded as it has.

“It went by in a blink – I’ll tell you that,” Edgar told MMAjunkie. “I didn’t even fathom it really. Coming out of college, I didn’t think it was a possibility, and when I started fighting, I was still working to support myself because New Jersey is not a cheap state to live in. I definitely didn’t imagine that I’d be supporting my family 10 years later and still making a good living from fighting.

“But I still want to make sure that my kids are set so that money isn’t an issue in deciding what my future is going to be. But still if I win the lottery and didn’t have to worry about money, I’d probably still be fighting. That’s just how it is.”

Now in the latter stages of recovering from groin surgery, Edgar is just biding his time before his next appointment inside the cage. Yet it’s not been too long since we last saw him and, on the night in question, Madison Square Garden was treated to the type of performance the 35-year-old has made his own.

In the featured preliminary-card bout at UFC 205 in New York City, Edgar utilized perpetual and fluid movement, slick hands and pinpoint takedowns to earn a unanimous-decision win over Jeremy Stephens. As has also been his wont, he somehow absorbed Stephens’ crushing head kick, which floored him in the second round, before seamlessly closing out the contest.

Frankie Edgar at UFC 67

But what of his debut? Well, Frankie Edgar’s promotional bow came all the way back on Feb. 3, 2007, at “UFC 67: All or Nothing.” The UFC was still saddling its events with cheesy movie titles then, but the card hosted at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center was laden with elite fighters.

Believe it or not, Anderson Silva was due to defend the middleweight title he took from Rich Franklin for the first time, but Travis Lutter missed weight. Silva took the resulting non-title bout by way of second-round submission, after Quinton Jackson knocked out Marvin Eastman and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic doled out similar treatment to Eddie Sanchez.

Edgar was paired with fellow undefeated prospect Tyson Griffin, who already had one UFC bout under his belt. Edgar agreed to the fight on four weeks’ notice, for two of which he had a near-debilitating sinus infection. The ensuing barnburner took “Fight of the Night” honors as Edgar won by unanimous decision despite Griffin locking in a vice-like kneebar in the final seconds.

“I knew we couldn’t miss that fight, so if they had to wheel me to the cage, we were going to get there,” Edgar recalled. “I was a little starstruck, but my buddy Chris, who was in the corner with me, was probably more in awe because he had been following the sport for so long. I took it all in, but I didn’t get too hyped up because I wanted to feel like I belonged. I felt great, but not physically. At the time, that infection crept back up in me, and my knee was killing me, but it didn’t matter. I was on top of the world.”

Interestingly, the prelim fight before his also featured another future UFC world champion competing under the Zuffa banner for the first time; former light-heavyweight kingpin Lyoto Machida bested Sam Hoger, also via unanimous decision.

The plumber’s humble beginning

Like countless others before and since, Edgar’s path to MMA began on the wrestling mats. A wrestler since childhood, the Toms River native attended Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he was an NCAA Division I national qualifier all four years but never reached his goal of becoming an All-American. Upon graduation, he returned home and, alongside his father, started working as a commercial plumber, but something was missing.

“When I stopped wrestling, even in the short time between starting fighting, I felt like a retired athlete without a purpose,” Edgar said. “Ever since I was a kid right through my senior year in college, the goal was to get better, and I always had goals set for me to accomplish. So I kind of felt like, ‘What do I get up in the morning and do now?’ For a while, work took that place, but then I found MMA and filled the void.

“A good two or three years after finishing college and starting my MMA career, I was still digging holes and carrying pipe around. I was in the union as a first-year apprentice and making pretty good money. And, when you get that overtime money, you can have a pretty healthy career as a plumber, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Competing is what I wanted to do, but plumbing taught me a lot – like I don’t want to get up early in the morning and work in that cold-ass weather.”

Edgar quickly racked up a string of wins on the local circuit and, before long, was auditioning for “The Ultimate Fighter 5” in Las Vegas. When he failed to make the cast, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

“Honestly, it did hurt,” Edgar said. “In my high school and college wrestling career, I always made close to the top, but not right there. I was undefeated in MMA, the tryouts went well, and when I left, I thought I was on the show. So when I wasn’t, it stung for a day or two. Plus, I was disappointed that I had to go back to work in the morning and wasn’t going to Vegas.”

Of those who did feature in the series, two of them would subsequently have a profound impact on Edgar’s career: “TUF” head coach B.J. Penn and a member of his team, Gray Maynard. Edgar returned to regular life but also recorded his last victory on the regional scene at the expense of another future stalwart of the lightweight division: Jim Miller.

The offer to fight Griffin was also accompanied by a three-fight contract, so Edgar had stepped onto the first rung of the UFC ladder.

Making a change

Edgar took his record to 9-0 with a first round TKO of Mark Bocek and a unanimous-decision win over Spencer Fisher at UFC 73 and 78, respectively, before crossing paths with Maynard for the first time.

There are fighters who say that, though it doesn’t feel that way in the moment, the loss of a long-held undefeated record can ultimately prove liberating. Even now, almost nine years after Maynard smothered him to take a unanimous-decision win in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 13, Edgar can cite the pain of his first professional loss. But that’s not to say there were no positives to be taken from the defeat.

Frankie Edgar at UFC 78

“It was just no good,” Edgar said. “I was used to the ups and downs of competing in wrestling, and it’s not like I thought I’d go undefeated, but when it does happen, it’s devastating. I put my heart and soul into each fight. I sacrifice things. So when you lose, it does hurt. It was a bit of wakeup call, so that fight just solidified my decision to find a gym that I could call home and to treat this like a job and not just something I do.”

Edgar had given up his plumbing career just before facing Maynard, but his preparations still left plenty to be desired. With the help of Steve Rivera, the man who has been his wrestling guru since Edgar was 13, he sought out the tutelage of now-retired UFC veteran Ricardo Almeida in Hamilton, N.J.

A wing of the Gracie Barra team, Almeida’s academy could also call on PRIDE and UFC veteran Renzo Gracie. Having only previously worked sporadically with striking coach Mark Henry, he and Edgar made their sessions a frequent occurrence. The team has remained intact ever since.

“After that loss to Gray, I did an about face and changed a lot of things,” Edgar said. “Leading up to that fight, I knew I needed to change things. I was finally fighting full-time and not just training in between jobs, and I realized then that it wasn’t the right way. Going to Ricardo’s was definitely the best thing I did in my fight career.

“Mark and I started hooking up on a regular basis, and I wasn’t just doing grappling but the technical aspects of jiu-jitsu with Ricardo, who is one of the most underrated coaches in MMA. Mark has just recently got the recognition, but Ricardo really is such a smart guy.”

Launching a title run

For those who saw the Edgar who was out-muscled by Maynard and then the fighter who earned a “Fight of the Night” bonus when defeating Hermes Franca at UFC Fight Night 14 a little more than one year later, the vast improvements to his game would have been startling.

The alterations to his training meant this was a version of Edgar who is close to the one we see today. The ceaseless lateral motion, volume punching and rapid transitions were all taking root in his repertoire. The evolution of his skills had come off the back of making life-altering decisions, namely forgoing a steady income after just getting married and becoming a home owner.

“When I decided to walk away from the job, it was tough to tell my dad that I didn’t want to get into the family business,” Edgar said. “But my family knew that when I do something, I do it the right way and take it seriously. They just followed me and supported me once I made that final decision. It was nerve-racking. At that point, I owned a condo and had bills to pay, so things were uncertain, but I just thought that if worst comes to worst, I can always go back to plumbing.”

Sean Sherk and Frankie Edgar prior to UFC 98

A combination of an injury and the birth of first son meant almost a year had elapsed when he fought again. Edgar didn’t mind the lengthy hiatus because a showdown with Sean Sherk at UFC 98 provided light at the end of the tunnel. Coach Henry has said that he felt the outcome of that fight could color the grander complexion of his student’s career.

In hindsight, Edgar believes that during those 15 frantic minutes, he shed the wrestler’s skin to complete his progression to legitimate mixed martial artist. The unanimous-decision victory over the former lightweight champion was momentous.

“It’s only when I finally believed whole-heartedly in my striking,” Edgar said. “I knew Sherk was going to be hard to take down. He’s a short, compact guy, but he was bigger than me, so I knew taking him down and keeping him there was going to be tough, so that’s where my boxing was going to have to excel. That’s the fight where I really stood up, and we felt like we made some ground there.”

Beating B.J. Penn

It’s worth noting that the eight championship bouts Edgar has fought in involved just four opponents. His first fight with Maynard also set a trend of rematches in motion that have come to define his career to date. A second round rear-naked choke submission of Matt Veach convinced the matchmakers that Edgar was worthy of a crack at then-lightweight champion B.J. Penn.

B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar at UFC 112

For those who don’t recall, the Penn of 2010 was a bone fide force of nature who was ruthlessly raising the bar for what it meant to be world champion. In his two previous title defenses, Penn had annihilated Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian, and there was an overwhelming consensus that the good people of Abu Dhabi – taking in their first live UFC event – would witness an even briefer massacre of Edgar. In the build-up to UFC 112, Edgar was unable to escape that particular train of thought.

“At the time, B.J. had an aura about him,” Edgar said. “He was running through everybody, licking the blood off his gloves, and I could feel people writing me off and rolling their eyes at me, which is understandable because B.J. was this beast. There was no point in me fighting him if I didn’t believe I could win. You must train your mind to believe anything.

“I didn’t get too lost in being under the bright lights in the desert, but it was definitely different. It was nice to have Renzo Gracie (who was beaten by Matt Hughes) on the card with me and getting to go on the promotional tour with him beforehand. Renzo might as well be the mayor of Abu Dhabi. He’s there so often, so I didn’t feel too out of sorts over there with him.”

Edgar was typically active in what was an engaging battle with Penn, but as he stood in the middle of the octagon, awaiting the judges’ verdict, hopeful speculation was his only option. He was awarded yet another unanimous decision, but, more importantly, the moment UFC President Dana White wrapped the belt around his waist provided validation for a lifetime’s endeavor.

“I remember when they read out 50-45, I thought that’s got to me because there was no way I lost five rounds,” Edgar said. “I knew it was close, but I also felt that I had been pushing the pace and initiating. I just thought, ‘It’s got to be me,’ and, again, tried to stay positive. I said it before: After getting so close with wrestling so many times, I finally felt that I could put second place behind me. I was No. 1.”

As Chris Weidman or Conor McGregor can attest, dethroning a longtime incumbent champion can induce a searing ire from the paying public, and Edgar’s victory over Penn was no different – as he found out before, and right up to, his unanimous-decision victory over the Hawaiian in their rematch at UFC 188 in Boston.

“That was about the time I had just signed up to Twitter, and I definitely felt the hate,” Edgar said. “When I walked out in Boston, I was the champion, from Jersey, thinking I was going to get love, and I got booed. I was like, ‘I can’t get any love on the East Coast. I should have worn my Yankee hat!”

‘I don’t remember that fight at all’

On New Year’s Day 2011, Edgar and Maynard put on one of the greatest title fights in UFC history. The truth is, it nearly defied belief. How exactly Edgar survived the tremendous beating Maynard dished out in the first round of their main event bout at UFC 125 remains a mystery – no more so than to Edgar.

Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard

Maynard clobbered Edgar with a lead hook and then an uppercut that each sent him reeling to canvas. Bloodied and barely conscious, he somehow made it to the bell.

“I’ll be completely honest: I don’t remember that fight at all,” Edgar said. “I remember coming to in maybe the fourth round, and then wondering why my ankle hurt so bad. But if you look at one of the times he dropped me in the first round, I fell back and rolled my ankle severely. It was badly sprained, and I had no idea why.”

Between the first and second rounds, Henry was imploring Edgar to move more, but the advice was seemingly lost on a man who was hardly aware of his surroundings. And yet, his output in Round 2 was that of a lucid fighter. They fought out a split draw, though footage of the result being read out shows Edgar to be utterly dejected.

“Even after the fight when my coach said I should have seen some of my takedowns, I had no idea I took him down,” Edgar said. “From watching it back, I just knew I was doing everything that Mark was saying, and that’s just repetition. I zero in on his voice; he’s like the remote control, and I’m the video game. On the way back, I was really upset. I don’t know if I was crying or not, and Mark just told me wait until you see what you did in that fight.”

Frankie Edgar

Amazingly, Edgar would endure a similar onslaught in the opening stanza of their rematch at UFC 136, but the shots he took were less concussive. In the fourth round, he clipped Maynard with compact hook during a scramble, chased him down and finished their trilogy via TKO. The lessons learned from those wars of attrition will never leave him.

“I just know that, when push comes to shove, I’m willing to die,” he said. “It’s good to know that when I’m in la la land or on autopilot, that I’m still fighting with heart and have the mindset to listen to my coaches. I get impressed by people’s heart in fights frequently. For myself, of course I don’t want to die. I have three kids. But sometimes when I’m in there, death might not be on my mind, but if it’s on a scale, wanting to win might outweigh all of it.”

Bouncing back

For a time, that was as good as it got for Edgar. He would lose his title to Benson Henderson at UFC 144, as well as the rematch at UFC 150. Having been urged to do so for years, he would reluctantly make the drop to featherweight. Immediately granted a title shot at Jose Aldo, Edgar was defeated via unanimous decision and, in what felt like the blink of eye, he went from one professional loss to four. This was far from how he had envisioned his divisional migration.

Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar at UFC 156

“What I wanted to do was win the belt at 155 pounds and then go down to 145 pounds, to shut everybody up,” he said. “It didn’t work out that way, and then I went down to featherweight, and it felt like everybody else, just losing weight to be the big guy. Then I find out that I’m still not the biggest.”

Edgar then began life as a rank-and-file featherweight contender, but his antics inside the cage ensured it was a brief incarnation. He rattled off five consecutive victories – Charles Oliveira, Penn, Cub Swanson, Urijah Faber and Chad Mendes – but during that time, the emergence of Conor McGregor profoundly altered the landscape of the division.

The normative means of securing title shots were, in some people’s eyes, no longer applicable, while Edgar offered to face the Dubliner on numerous occasions to no avail. The night before McGregor dethroned Aldo at UFC 194, Edgar knocked out Mendes. UFC President White all but guaranteed Edgar the first crack at the Irishman but soon gave McGregor leave to pursue his interest at lightweight, and he never returned to featherweight. Ever the company man, circumstances led Edgar to publicly air his grievances, but he wasn’t mourning lost friendships with those who sign his checks.

“In major sports it’s not about being this flashy guy or big mouth; it’s about putting the work in and getting your stats right and then you get paid the money,” Edgar said. “If you perform, you get paid. But now there’s such an entertainment part of MMA, and nobody has shown us that better than Conor. I think he opened up a lot of guys’ eyes.

“It’s not like I have a super-tight relationship with the UFC. I speak to Dana when we see each other at fights or when we’re negotiating stuff. It’s not like we’re talking to each other for any other reason. If Conor was here or not, things would change, and you’d learn as it goes, but maybe with Conor things changed a little differently.”

McGregor’s two fights with Nate Diaz saw the UFC create an interim title at featherweight and, at UFC 200, Edgar was once again on the wrong end of a unanimous decision to Aldo. Henry has personally accepted responsibility for the defeat, but Edgar disagrees.

“Mark takes the blame, but there’s only one person to blame, and that’s the person that’s in there: me,” Edgar said. “I did everything we set out to do. It’s just Aldo had the answer for it. The first fight was close, but obviously the second one wasn’t. Maybe it’s just my pride, but I don’t want to say that anybody has got my number. I didn’t adjust well in that second fight.”

Looking ahead, to red pantie night?

Soon after his coronation as lightweight champion, the UFC stripped McGregor of his featherweight strap and handed it directly back to Aldo. Max Holloway then defeated Anthony Pettis for the interim title, but no date has been set for a unification bout. Consequently, Edgar finds himself in a state of limbo.

Frankie Edgar

“I’m kind of caught in the middle of the road right now,” Edgar said. “Do I want to fight frequently, or do I want to fight for the title? The surgery was good because it made me pump the brakes a little bit. I guess Holloway and Aldo have to fight, but I don’t know how to look at it. I guess I’m not surprised by anything now.

“We’re going to lose the legitimacy of the sport a little bit because now we have an interim belt at lightweight already. I’m not ready to leave featherweight just yet. I don’t know what the deal is with Aldo or what the landscape is yet. I’m going to stay here to see how things pan out, but if someone offered me a title shot at bantamweight, it would be hard to pass up.”

For all the upheaval brought on by the UFC’s sale from Zuffa to WME-IMG, the prospect of fighters unionizing, and the increasingly discernible shift of priorities at the top end of the sport, Edgar would gladly start his career from scratch.

“I wish I was 25 again,” Edgar said. “I just think that the longer the sport goes, the better it’s going to get for the athletes. It’s a good atmosphere to be in, and for a 25-year-old coming in now, things are looking up. It’s not any easier because fighters are more well-rounded and the divisions are deeper. Things are looking up, though.

“It’s a different atmosphere than it was when I first got in. But then the UFC and MMA were fighting to get a footing, and now we’re going to see changes left and right. I really don’t know what to think of all these changes. I’m just riding the wave like everybody else.”

Edgar turns 36 in October and is open to all possibilities down the road, but if there’s a matchup in particular he could have, there’s no question with whom it would be.

“Who does everybody want to fight?” Edgar asked. “I’ve got three kids, I could use a red-panty night.”

Watch this space.

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