Frankie Edgar Not Concerned About Quick Turnaround Following TKO Loss

Frankie Edgar has been the hammer far more often than he’s been the nail during his illustrious mixed martial arts career.

Unfortunately for the first time ever at UFC 222 in early March, Edgar suffered a TKO loss to Brian Ortega in the opening round of their featherweight title eliminator. In the past, Edgar has engaged in some of the most epic wars in UFC history — most notably his back-to-back title fights against Gray Maynard — but he had never been finished until that loss to Ortega.

As surprising as that result may have been perhaps an even bigger shocker was finding out that Edgar was turning around to accept a new fight against Cub Swanson on April 21 as part of the UFC Fight Night card in Atlantic City.

The biggest concern about that fast turn around wasn’t whether or not Edgar would be physically prepared for another fight in just a few weeks time. The real issue was the risk of head trauma after Edgar suffered that TKO in what will end up being seven weeks between fights.

Edgar argues that he went through all the necessary precautions including a visit to a neurologist before accepting the fight with Swanson. Perhaps more than anything else, however, Edgar says he felt perfectly fine after the fight and that gave him all the confidence in the world that he could step back into the Octagon and do it again on April 21.

“I don’t give a s–t if people believe me or not, but I really wasn’t nauseous afterwards, I didn’t have a headache afterwards. I felt like I’ve left sparring sessions with a worst headache in the past. But he got me good and that’s just how it goes,” Edgar said about the aftermath of his fight with Ortega.

“I’m not too concerned about the brain trauma and what not. I know how I felt. I went to see a neurologist and I got cleared so I’m good to go.”

As far as the finish of the fight goes, Edgar says he was never unconscious nor did he suffer a concussion as a result of the TKO.

In fact, Edgar says he remembers everything about the fight — from the first elbow that landed to the punches that ultimately put a stop to the contest.

“I was pretty good. I was definitely rocked. I’ve seen the finish and I’m not complaining about the stoppage or anything but I wasn’t out all the way,” Edgar said. “I was pretty with it all the way through even when I was going down so I knew I had short time and when the referee stopped it, right away I said ‘I’m good, I’m good’ even if I wasn’t, I was coherent enough to say that.”

Once his health wasn’t a concern, Edgar had no reservations about making the quick turn around, especially with the chance to compete in his home state of New Jersey.

It’s been nearly 11 years since Edgar last fought at home and so with this opportunity in front of him, there was no way he was passing it up.

“I wanted to jump back in there. I was kind of thinking about jumping on this card regardless of the outcome of the [Brian Ortega] fight,” Edgar said. “I was thinking about doing it before the fight. It’s in Jersey, I haven’t fought here in a long time and I don’t know if I’ll get this opportunity again so let’s jump on it.”