Frankie Edgar plans to continue career after KO loss to Cory Sandhagen: “I can’t go out like that”

By Harry Kettle - February 12, 2021

UFC bantamweight Frankie Edgar has confirmed that he will not be retiring after his knockout defeat to Cory Sandhagen last weekend.

Frankie Edgar

Edgar locked horns with rising contender Sandhagen at UFC Vegas 18, but the bout only lasted 28 seconds before “The Sandman” knocked Edgar out with an astonishing flying knee.

During a recent podcast appearance, however, Edgar made it crystal clear that he isn’t planning on hanging up the gloves just yet.

“People wanna sit there and tell you ‘oh I think it’s time to hang it up’ or this and that, it’s like yo, even people that somewhat know me, if you don’t know me, like really know me, don’t f***ing tell me anything,” Edgar said. “Because you don’t know where I’m at, you don’t know how I feel, you don’t know how I am in the gym, all of that s***.

“This is what I’m gonna do, and that’s what it is,” Edgar continued. “I know I have the right people around me that are close like that, that will say something when they feel it needs to be [time to retire]. I’m not gonna do anything stupid, but I can’t go out like that one.”

While he may be determined to go on, Edgar has also confirmed that he experienced some scary moments in the hours after the fight.

“I didn’t really come to until I was in the back. That is the first thing I remember. I’m sitting around the doctors going through that whole process with them, Mark and Ricardo are next to me and I’m like, ‘Mark, what happened?’ He’s like ‘you fought,’ and I kind of figured that,” Edgar said to ESPN. “But, I couldn’t remember who the f**k I fought. I’m like ‘who did I fight?’ He’s like ‘Sandhagen.’ I’m trying to remember training for the guy and I could not remember training for him. Since when was I supposed to fight him? I thought maybe I just took this fight on short notice or something. He’s like ‘bro, two months. You have been training for this guy for two months.’

“Man, I just couldn’t wrap it around my head. The doctor asked me what day it was and for the life of me, I could not remember. I was like, ‘September, December.’ That is when they said I needed to go get a cat scan,” Frankie Edgar continued. “Alright, whatever, we go to the hospital, and then on the way to the hospital the nurse in the ambulance said ‘what day of February is it?’ I was like boom, ‘it’s the 6th.’ Right away that is when things started snowballing and I started to remember the warmup and even the first 20 seconds before getting hit with the knee. Everything came back to me but I don’t remember walking out of the cage though.”

Who do you want to see Frankie Edgar fight next?