Former UFC lightweight champion and future Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar has booked the final fight of his career.
Edgar (24-10-1) will face Chris Gutierrez in a bantamweight contest at UFC 281 on Nov. 12, according to multiple sources. The pay-per-view event will take place at Madison Square Garden, just north of Edgar’s hometown of Toms River, New Jersey.
Earlier this year, Edgar, 40, told ESPN he wanted to book one last fight in New York before retiring from mixed martial arts. He confirmed that is still the plan to ESPN on Thursday.
Edgar is one of the most respected fighters of the past two decades. He has fought exclusively in the UFC since his promotional debut in February 2007 and has competed in three weight classes. He won the UFC’s lightweight championship by upsetting BJ Penn in 2010 and went on to compete for the featherweight belt twice against Jose Aldo.
He dropped to the bantamweight division in 2020 and picked up a win in his first 135-pound appearance against Pedro Munhoz. He has suffered back-to-back knockout losses in his past two fights, however, to ranked contenders Cory Sandhagen and Marlon Vera.
Gutierrez (18-3-2) is a rising, 31-year-old bantamweight with an overall UFC record of 6-1-1. Fighting out of Colorado, Gutierrez hasn’t lost since his UFC debut in 2018. Two of his six victories in the UFC have come via knockout.
Despite his current 0-2 skid, Edgar is the UFC’s No. 11-ranked bantamweight.