Edgar: I have support of friends, family, team for fast turnaround
Frankie Edgar: “In an interview I did this week I said I have been sparring. I just want to clarify that the sparring I’ve been doing did not include head shots …”
Frankie Edgar was stopped for the first time in his career at UFC 222 on March 3, by Brian Ortega, via KO. He was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission until April 18, with no contact until April 3. However, Edgar accepted a fight vs. Cub Swanson at UFC Fight Night 128 on April 21.
During an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour on Monday, March 26, Edgar said he had sparred three times the previous week. That would appear to violated the NSAC’s no contact suspension. Edgar offered a clarification via his social network.
“In an interview I did this week I said I have been sparring,” he tweeted. “I just want to clarify that the sparring I’ve been doing did not include head shots and has been technical drilling sessions.”
https://twitter.com/FrankieEdgar/status/978787289185865729
Despite what he termed a clarification, there are concerns that Edgar is coming back from the first KO of his career too quickly. The fighter tried to address these in conversation with Helwani.
I always listen to what my coaches say, and [manager Ali Abdelaziz] and my wife and my teammates, my friends, said Edgar. I kinda hear everybody out, but ultimately it’s definitely my decision. As long as I have their support — if they said don’t take this fight, I still probably would’ve taken it, but it’s good to have their support, and I felt I had that.
It’s not like I got turned off in there. Like I said, I was pretty with it. Even afterwards, I kinda knew what put me down. Even in the hotel room, man, I really didn’t have a headache or nothing. I think I’ve left training with worse headaches than I had on March 3.
The last prominent fighter to take a fast fight was Michael Bisping after losing his belt to GSP. That didn’t work out for him.
But that was just a loss. Talk to any fighter with CTE and they will tell you they wish they gave their brain more time to recover from knockouts. And while Edgar had never been stopped before, he took shots that would stop anyone else. But like Muhammad Ali and the world learned, the ability to take a huge shot can exact a terrible price long term.
