Earlier this month, in the final bout of the UFC 205 undercard, former lightweight champion and longtime featherweight contender Frankie Edgar took on the dangerous Jeremy Stephens. Barring a moment in the second round where he was wobbled by a Stephens head-kick, Edgar would dominate this contest en route to a sound, unanimous decision win.
Apparently, however, Edgar’s preparations for this fight were fairly disastrous. In a recent interview with Daily Star, Edgar’s coach Mark Henry detailed the nightmarish camp Edgar endured in the buildup to his battle with Stephens.
“People don’t know that in this camp with Frankie, it was just a total disaster,” Henry said. “He tore his MCL in the fight [with Jose Aldo] and then was trying to compensate for his MCL.”
Henry went on to explain that this injury made it impossible for Edgar to grapple during his training camp for Stephens.
“He did no wrestling at all the entire camp, he did no jiu-jitsu the entire camp,” he explained. “We asked him to pull out and he wouldn’t pull out of the fight and he said, ‘I’m not pulling out no matter what.’”
Considering all that Edgar went through in the buildup to UFC 205, his coach was extremely impressed with the performance he was ultimately able to put on.
“To try and compensate for his knee, he messed up his back badly so he had to get an epidural for his back,” Henry continued. “He just would not pull out of the fight no matter what. To put all that aside, no wrestling the whole camp when you wrestle a lot and no jiu-jitsu and not being able to do some certain cardio things, man, he did really good.”
“People don’t know the back story because Frankie doesn’t really talk about it,” said Henry. “But what he accomplished in that fight considering everything against him and considering how great Jeremy is and the size difference, I really give him credit.”
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