Frankie Edgar’s fighting career began nearly two decades ago with an underground promotion in The Bronx — at a time when professional mixed martial arts wasn’t regulated in New York. He made $160 that night, because he got $10 for each ticket he sold.
It’s safe to say that the former UFC lightweight champion’s swan song Saturday on the pay-per-view portion of UFC 281 at Madison Square Garden will go down with more glamour. More rules, too.
“Seventeen years ago, driving up here and fighting some guy with [a] no rules fight, headbutt the guy,” Edgar, a native of Toms River, N.J., recalled at UFC media day on Wednesday, referring to a strike that is very much against the rules today, “and to get to finish it at the most famous arena in the world is definitely full circle.”
