Frankie Edgar

Frankie Edgar (born October 16, 1981) is an American former professional mixed martial artist, who most recently competed in the Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Edgar was born and raised in Toms River, New Jersey, on October 16, 1981, to Mary (née Annese) and Frank Edgar.

He 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 is the oldest of 3 children and went on to compete in the NHSCA Senior Nationals, placing second before he finished high school.

Edgar continued wrestling at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he qualified for the nationals all four years there.

He is also an assistant coach for the Rutgers University wrestling team.

Edgar is of predominantly Italian descent, with an Italian-born mother, stepfather and paternal grandfather, but he also has some German ancestry on his biological father's side as well.

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, New Jersey, who is part of the Gracie Barra team.

Since seventh grade Edgar has wrestled with Steve Rivera at Elite Wrestling NJ in Jackson, New Jersey.

His boxing trainer is Mark Henry of Millstone, New Jersey.

Edgar amassed a 5–0 record before trying out for season five of The Ultimate Fighter.

Edgar tried out in front of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White and matchmaker 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.

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.

This fight marked the first bout of a series.

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 França at UFC Fight Night 14.

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 expected to face Kurt Pellegrino on December 5, 2009, at The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale, but Pellegrino was forced to withdraw due to an injury.

Matt Veach was named as Pellegrino's replacement, moving up from an undercard bout.

After being on the defensive for most of the first round, Edgar became the aggressor in the second round by punishing Veach with strikes, Ultimately knocking Veach down with a straight right, Edgar then proceeded to take Veach's back and finishing him with a rear naked choke at 2:22 into the second round.

At UFC 112, Edgar was matched against Lightweight Champion B.J. 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) in favor of Edgar.

The unanimous decision win awarded him the UFC Lightweight Championship.

8 of 9 media outlets scored the bout in favor of Penn.

Beginning his career in the Lightweight division, Edgar captured the UFC Lightweight Championship in 2010 and successfully defended it three times before losing it in 2012.

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 have defeated Edgar, in a rematch from UFC Fight Night 13.

Edgar then moved down to compete in the Featherweight division, where he challenged for the UFC Featherweight Championship twice and the interim championship once before moving down to the Bantamweight division in 2020.

Edgar's background was in amateur wrestling.

He wrestled collegiately for the Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where he was a four-time NCAA Division I National qualifier.