Frank James Edgar (born October 16, 1981) is an 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 Weekly. He holds notable wins over Tyson Griffin, Jim Miller, Mark Bocek, Hermes Franca, Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn twice.
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. Edgar went on to compete in the NHSCA Senior Nationals and placed second before he finished high school. He continued wrestling at
Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he qualified for the nationals all four years there. Edgar is also an assistant coach for the
Rutgers University wrestling team.
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 in Jackson, NJ. His boxing trainer is Mark Henry of Millstone, NJ.
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. 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 . 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. Edgar appears in UFC 2009 Undisputed.
Edgar was expected to face Kurt Pellegrino on December 5, 2009 on finale, but Pellegrino was forced to withdraw due to an injury. Matt Veach was named as Pellegrino's replacement, moving up from the undercard bout.
Edgar won via Rear Naked Choke at 2:22 into the second round.
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.
On June 24, 2010 ESPN announced Edgar as a nominee for Best Upset of the Year at the 2010 ESPY Awards.
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. 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, making him the second fighter to defeat Penn in the lightweight division (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 . Maynard earned the #1 contender spot at UFC 118 with a win over Kenny Florian. 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 second 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 in a belt unification match. However less than two hours later UFC president Dana White announced a change of plans, Edgar will now fight Gray Maynard for the third time., now expected to take place on May 28, 2011 at UFC 130.
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, and Santino James, born in May 2010.
Championships and accomplishments
Reality Fighting
*RF Lightweight Champion
*Ultimate Fighting Championship
*UFC Lightweight Championship (One time, current)
*Fight Of The Night (Four times)
Mixed martial arts record
{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="font-size:85%; text-align:left; width:100%;"
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Result
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|Record
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Opponent
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Method
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Event
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Date
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Round
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Time
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Location
!style="border-style:none none solid solid; background:#e3e3e3;"|
Notes
|-
|
|
|
Gray Maynard
|
|
UFC 130
|May 28, 2011
|
|
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
|For
UFC Lightweight Championship
|-
|style='background: #c5d2ea' align="center"|
zDraw
|align=center|13-1-1
|
Gray Maynard
|Draw (Split)
|
UFC 125: Resolution
|
|align=center|5
|align=center|5:00
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
| Retains
UFC Lightweight Championship, Fight of the Night
|-
|Win
|align=center|13-1
|
B.J. Penn
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
UFC 118: Edgar vs. Penn 2
|
|align=center|5
|align=center|5:00
|
Boston, Massachusetts
| Defended
UFC Lightweight Championship
|-
|Win
|align=center|12-1
|
B.J. Penn
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
UFC 112: Invincible
|
|align=center|5
|align=center|5:00
|
Abu Dhabi, UAE
| Won
UFC Lightweight Championship
|-
|Win
|align='center'|11–1
|
Matt Veach
| Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)
|
|
|align='center'|2
|align='center'|2:22
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
| Fight of the Night
|-
|Win
|align='center'|10–1
|
Sean Sherk
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
UFC 98: Evans vs. Machida
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|9-1
|
Hermes França
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
| Fight of the Night
|-
|Loss
|align='center'|8-1
|
Gray Maynard
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Broomfield, Colorado
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|8–0
|
Spencer Fisher
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
UFC 78: Validation
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Newark, New Jersey
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|7–0
|
Mark Bocek
|TKO (Punches)
|
UFC 73: Stacked
|
|align='center'|1
|align='center'|4:55
|
Sacramento, California
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|6–0
|
Tyson Griffin
|Decision (Unanimous)
|
UFC 67: All or Nothing
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Las Vegas, Nevada
| Fight of the Night
|-
|Win
|align='center'|5–0
|
Jim Miller
|Decision (Unanimous)
|Reality Fighting 14
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Atlantic City, New Jersey
| Won Reality Fighting Lightweight Championship
|-
|Win
|align='center'|4–0
|
Deividas Taurosevičius
|Decision (Unanimous)
|RF 13: Battle at the Beach
|
|align='center'|3
|align='center'|5:00
|
Wildwood, New Jersey
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|3–0
| Steve Macabe
|Submission (Guillotine Choke)
|Ring of Combat 10
|
|align='center'|1
|align='center'|2:37
|
Atlantic City, New Jersey
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|2–0
| Jay Isip
|Submission (Rear-Naked Choke)
|SportFighting 2
|
|align='center'|1
|align='center'|3:26
|
Hoboken, New Jersey
|
|-
|Win
|align='center'|1–0
| Mark Getto
|TKO (Punches)
|Ring of Combat 9
|
|align='center'|1
|align='center'|4:21
|
Asbury Park, New Jersey
|
|-
|}
See also
List of current mixed martial arts champions
References
External links
Wrestling Training Center
UFC profile
MixedMartialArts.com record
Frank Edgar Interview: A man that lets his actions do the talking
BumpyKnuckle.com Q&A; with Frankie Edgar
Category:American mixed martial artists
Category:Mixed martial artists from New Jersey
Category:Lightweight mixed martial artists
Category:Ultimate Fighting Championship champions
Category:Living people
Category:1981 births
Category:People from Toms River, New Jersey
Category:Clarion University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:American practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
![Gray Maynard: I Handled [Frankie Edgar]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110217020030im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J2rHR3sFxMk/0.jpg "Gray Maynard: I Handled [Frankie Edgar]")
![Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California, United States that is used for baseball, football, and soccer games. It is commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004) and McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008) before its original name was restored in 2008.[2] The Coliseum is currently home to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football Le](http://web.archive.org./web/20110217020030im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/d4/80/155781f3170d5c6075865765c16d_grande.jpg "Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California, United States that is used for baseball, football, and soccer games. It is commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004) and McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008) before its original name was restored in 2008.[2] The Coliseum is currently home to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football Le")
![Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California, United States that is used for baseball, football, and soccer games. It is commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004) and McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008) before its original name was restored in 2008.[2] The Coliseum is currently home to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football Le](http://web.archive.org./web/20110217020030im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/d4/80/155781f3170d5c6075865765c16d_thumb.jpg "Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California, United States that is used for baseball, football, and soccer games. It is commonly referred to as The Oakland Coliseum or simply The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004) and McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008) before its original name was restored in 2008.[2] The Coliseum is currently home to the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football Le")
