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Chael Sonnen thinks that despite losing, Frankie Edgar proved he still can compete with the best.
Edgar (24-10-1 MMA, 18-10-1 UFC), 40, suffered his second straight knockout loss when he was on the receiving end of a front kick courtesy of Marlon Vera at UFC 268. It was a tough pill to swallow for Edgar, who was competitive throughout the fight and even up 2-0 heading into Round 3 on one of the judges’ scorecards.
Sonnen, however, thinks the fight was going heavily in Edgar’s favor until he was caught with a little more than a minute left in the fight.
“Frankie won every bit of that fight,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Frankie won every exchange, every round, and every minute of that fight. He lost one second of it – one second, and boom: kicked in the mouth, falls down, fight gets stopped. That’s a hard way to go out. Frankie definitely proved to us he could still do this.
“He definitely proved to us he still trains, he’s still in great shape, he’s got the speed, he’s got the power, he’s got the range. His boxing was on point digging to the body. Frankie looked great. He lost one second. We don’t know if we’re going to see a future Hall of Famer, a former champion of the world again because he lost one second of a 13 and a half minute fight? Man, that’s tough.”
For the first time in his career, Edgar claimed he’s not thinking about his next fight. Although he didn’t give a definitive answer regarding potential retirement, Sonnen thinks that’s a decision “The Answer” will have to make himself.
“Very tough conversation: Are we there yet with Frankie?” Sonnen said. “I hope not. I do have a hard time answering the second part of the question: If this isn’t it for Frankie, I must also be able to submit for you then, what is next? I’ve never felt that Frankie, my favorite fighter, has done a very good job of steering his career. He does not get the game – he does not play the media.
“He is a blue collar, straight-up competitor. Shake hands before, shake hands after, walk away and live with the result. That’s the wrestler in him. I hope he breaks from that ideology because nobody can answer the question of what is next for Frankie, what should be next for Frankie, what makes sense to keep Frankie around and have him go out and try one more time, better than Frankie.”