It may not have been “The Answer” the Garden crowd wanted at the end – not by a long shot – but Frankie Edgar’s MMA career has come to a close.
Edgar, in the announced final fight of his MMA career, fell hard to Chris Gutierrez via a brutal knee knockout at 2:01 of the first round on Saturday night on the pay-per-view main card of UFC 281.
The proud native of Toms River, N.J., Edgar (24-11, 11 finishes) had made it known in the lead-up to the Madison Square Garden event that he intended to walk away from mixed martial arts afterward.
“I love this sport, man,” Edgar told the crowd in the cage, after UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan asked if the injured Edgar would consent to an interview. “I didn’t wanna go out like that. This sport’s a b—h.”
The fight remained on the feet for its short duration, with Gutierrez (19-4-1, 10 finishes) stinging Edgar with his notoriously heavy leg kicks early.
But Edgar’s chin, once famed for absorbing blow after blow but had proved a liability in recent years, couldn’t withstand Gutierrez’s power. The knee that sent Edgar backward stiffly to the mat caused the third consecutive knockout loss in brutal fashion – all via knees or kicks against some of the heaviest hitters at 135 pounds.
A loud “Fran-kie, Ed-gar” chant sung from the Garden crowd shortly before the bout was made official and not long after Gutierrez gave his opponent a long and respectful embrace, as the surefire future Hall of Famer sat on the stool he’d been raised up to sit upon.
On his way to the back, Edgar shared an embrace with his wife and children.
Edgar, who reigned as the UFC lightweight champion from 2010-12, made his name on his ability to overcome early adversity against larger competition. In his final years of competition, he had dropped all the way down to bantamweight – weighing in 20 pounds less than when he ruled the 155-pound division.
Throughout the week, the majority of the athletes on the fight card and in New York for the festivities had shared what Edgar’s career meant to them. Many cited his fight of the year draw against Gray Maynard in 2011, a championship fight in which the South Jerseyan rallied from a disastrous first frame to retain the belt, as their most indelible memory. He put an exclamation point on the rivalry with a fourth-round knockout of the larger Maynard 10 months later.
Gutierrez, a Jersey City native who trains in Colorado, extended his unbeaten streak to eight fights and secured the highest-profile victory of his career.