Yves Edwards Ends 17-Year MMA Career
Yves Edwards announced last night via his Facebook account that he was retiring after 17 years of fighting. Edwards amassed a 42-22-1 record, with one no-contest.
The 38-year old known as the “ThugJitsu Master” fought in many top organizations, including HOOKnSHOOT, Pride, Bellator, and the UFC. Edwards made his UFC debut at UFC 33 against Matt Serra, back in 2001. (Let that sink in, Yves Edwards has been on-and-off employed in the UFC for nearly a decade-and-a-half).
Edwards totaled 21 fights in the UFC, going 10-10, along with the no-contest. He scored many impressive victories over fighters such as Rich Clementei, Josh Thomson, Aaron Riley, and Hermes Franca. Of Edwards’ 42 victories, 33 came via TKO / submission (a 78% finish rate). In other words, Edwards always came to scrap and looked for the finish.
Edwards never had the chance to wear UFC gold, which is no shame and will be remembered in MMA as one of the most stand up, humble guys who always showed up to fight, and showed honor and respect inside and outside of the cage / ring. He can be more than proud to compile such an impressive mma career, with so many professional fights and such a great overall record, and will go down as on of the most decorated lightweight competitors in the game.
Edwards knocks out Josh Thomson at UFC 49: Unfinished Business
From Yves Edwards’ facebook page:
“I’ve thought about how to say this for a week now, but there’s no better way than to just do it. So here goes; 1st I’d like to say thank you to all the people that I’ve met through and because of fighting, friends, training partners, coaches, fight fans, doctors and even some promoters/matchmakers. A lot of you guys have always shown me nothing but love and I really appreciate that.
Fighting has been a part of my life ever since I was 17 and that makes this a hard pill to swallow but it’s time for me to end this chapter and move on to the next part of my life. So thank you again to all the people that have supported me through this, whether it was through cheers, training, coaching or anything else at all.”
Yves
