Frankie Edgar American mixed martial artist. He is the current UFC Lightweight Champion and ranked as the 1 lightweight fighter in the world by Sherdog and MMA

Frankie Edgar American mixed martial artist. He is the current UFC Lightweight Champion and ranked as the 1 lightweight fighter in the world by Sherdog and MMA

Early life

Edgar wrestled at Toms River High School East, making it to the New Jersey state championship tournament on three occasions, placing second as a junior and fifth as a senior. He continued wrestling at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he qualified for the nationals all four years there.[3] Edgar is also an assistant coach for the Rutgers University wrestling team.[4]

[edit]Mixed martial arts career

Edgar entered his first mixed martial arts fight with only a few weeks of training outside of his wrestling background. Edgar originally trained with Rob Guarino of Rhino Fight Team, but today he is part of the Gracie system under Ricardo Almeida in Hamilton, NJ. Since seventh grade Edgar has wrestled with Steve Rivera at Elite Wrestling NJ[5] in Jackson, NJ. Last year he added to his resume Rutgers University, where he assists coaching. His boxing trainer is Mark Henry of Millstone, NJ.

[edit]Ultimate Fighting Championships

Edgar amassed a 5–0 record before trying out for the Ultimate Fighter season five. Edgar tried out in front of Dana White and Joe Silva, but was not selected to be on the show.[6] However, a month later the UFC contacted Edgar and asked if he would accept a fight with fellow undefeated fighter Tyson Griffin at UFC 67. Griffin caught Edgar in a deep kneebar at the end of the fight, but Edgar refused to tap and lasted out the remainder of the round to win by unanimous decision. He and Griffin earned Fight of the Night and the fight has been frequently rebroadcast on UFC Unleashed.

Edgar followed up with a first-round TKO victory over Mark Bocek at UFC 73. He made his main card debut at UFC 78 against veteran fighter Spencer Fisher and won via unanimous decision.

Edgar suffered his first loss at UFC Fight Night 13 against Gray Maynard. Though the underdog, Maynard used his size and wrestling skill to overpower Edgar en route to a unanimous decision. Edgar rebounded with another Fight of the Night victory against Hermes Franca at UFC: Silva vs. Irvin. Edgar then defeated former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk, outworking him all three rounds to earn the unanimous decision victory over the stronger and heavier fighter.

Edgar was a featured fighter on True Life: I'm a Mixed Martial Artist leading up to his fight with Maynard.[7] Edgar appears in UFC 2009 Undisputed.

Edgar was expected to face Kurt Pellegrino on December 5, 2009 on The Ultimate Fighter 10 finale,[8] but Pellegrino was forced to withdraw due to an injury.[9] Matt Veach was named as Pellegrino's replacement, moving up from the undercard bout. [10] Edgar won via Rear Naked Choke at 2:22 into the second round.[11]

[edit]UFC lightweight champion

At UFC 112, Edgar was matched against lightweight champion BJ Penn. After a long, back-and-forth, predominantly standing fight, the judges' scorecards were called on for a decision. The scores were 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, all for Edgar. The unanimous decision win awarded him the UFC Lightweight Championship.[12]

On June 24, 2010 ESPN announced Edgar as a nominee for Best Upset of the Year at the 2010 ESPY Awards.[13]

The bout at UFC 112 was deemed close enough that Edgar's first title defense took the form of a UFC 118 rematch against Penn on August 28, 2010.[14] Edgar defeated Penn via unanimous decision to retain the UFC Lightweight Championship, this time with no controversy after taking Penn down multiple times and out-striking him throughout all five rounds. All three judges scored the bout 50-45 for Edgar,[15][16] making him the second fighter to defeat Penn in the lightweight division [17] (the other being Jens Pulver), and the second fighter ever to beat Penn twice (the other being Georges St-Pierre).

Edgar's next title defense was against Gray Maynard, the only man to ever defeat Edgar, in a rematch from UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Lauzon. Maynard earned the #1 contender spot at UFC 118 with a win over Kenny Florian.[18] The bout took place on January 1, 2011 at UFC 125, with the fight ending in a draw (judges scorecards: 48-46 Maynard, 48-46 Edgar, 47-47). His fight with Maynard marks the third time in UFC history, that a championship fight ended as a draw.

During the UFC 125 Post fight Conference, it was announced that Edgar's next opponent would be Anthony Pettis, however less than two hours later UFC president Dana White announced a change of plans, Edgar will now rematch Gray Maynard as soon as possible.[19]

[edit]Personal life

Edgar and his wife, Renee, were married ten days after UFC Fight Night 13. The couple have two sons—Francesco, born in January 2009,[20] and Santino James, born in May 2010.[21] Edgar is also an assistant coach for the Rutgers University wrestling team. He graduated college in 2005.

[edit]Championships and accomplishments

Reality Fighting

RF Lightweight Champion

Ultimate Fighting Championship

UFC Lightweight Champion (1 time, current)

Fight of the Night (4 times)

Submission of the Night (1 time)

MMA Record

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