Frankie Edgar wants retirement fight at UFC 281, mentions Dominick Cruz as potential final foe
Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar wants his retirement fight at UFC 281, and he mentioned Dominick Cruz as a potential final foe.
Edgar is coming off of back-to-back brutal KO losses to Marlon Vera via front kick and to Cory Sandhagen via flying knee, and at age 40, he knows his career is almost over. The former UFC lightweight champion is still ranked in the top 15 at 135lbs, but at this point, he realizes that he doesn’t have much time left and he is already looking ahead to the next phase of his life. While announcing his retirement from MMA after such a long career is not an easy thing to do, it appears Edgar is ready to make that tough decision.
Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Edgar admitted that the end is near, but he still wants one more fight at UFC 281 this November at MSG in New York City, New York.
“I think that would be cool. It would be a pretty cool sendoff at Madison Square Garden, it’s pretty much in my backyard. I trained up in Renzo’s for so many years, it would be a pretty cool sendoff,” Edgar said (via MMAFighting.com).
As for a potential opponent, Edgar mentioned a fight against a fellow legend in Cruz, though Cruz is set to take on Marlon Vera at UFC San Diego in August. However, if Cruz is willing to take the fight with Edgar, then it seems like it’s possible the UFC books it.
“I’m never one to call anybody out or pick anybody, I usually let the UFC and Ali (Abdelaziz) kind of figure that out. But I’ll say a name just because I think it’s more of a legacy fight and I know he has a fight coming up and who knows how it could happen, but I think Dominick Cruz. He was a champion at 135 when I was the champion at 155. We were both pretty much top of the division, I think that could be an interesting fight,” Edgar said.
Do you want to see Frankie Edgar take on Dominick Cruz in his last career MMA fight?
