Frankie Edgar says he’s “heartbroken” after KO loss in retirement fight at UFC 281: “No way that’s how I wanted to go”

Frankie Edgar is disappointed with how his career ended.

At UFC 281, Edgar was taking on Chris Gutierrez in his retirement fight. The former UFC lightweight champion had a legendary career and is a future Hall of Famer but in his retirement fight, he suffered a first-round KO loss, which was heartbreaking for him.

“Obviously heartbroken,” Edgar said on his podcast Champ and the Tramp (via MMAFighting). “No way that’s how I wanted to go. But that’s the way it goes. You saw [the knockout], everybody saw it. It f****** sucks but how can I complain to be honest. People were cheering my name the whole time, before, during, after. I know I work hard to get where I got. Like f****** hard, very hard. I sacrificed a lot my whole life. I put my all into my athletic career since day one but who the f*** am I to complain? There’s people out there that work hard and they just make it by. I know both sides of that. I’m just trying to be grateful for what I accomplished. Grateful for the ride I had.”

Edgar also adds that is was tough to lose in that fashion, especially with his kids in attendance.

However, Edgar doesn’t think the loss was due to him slowing down or having a bad chin. Instead, he says he just caught and gave credit to Gutierrez for landing the knee.

Edgar wishes he was able to put it all on the line

“Either I’m slowing down a step or I just don’t see f****** nothing up the middle,” Edgar said. “Damn, the last three up the middle. I guess I don’t have to worry about that stuff no more. But again, I’m a very prideful person and all these people ‘my chin, his chin, his chin.’ I don’t know if my chin’s that bad. I know how I am in the gym. That first combo hit me with that spinning back fist. It was pretty f****** hard, I ate it pretty good. Knees and kicks are just a different animal. I didn’t see them coming either but I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of and I’ve really got nothing to hang my head about.”

Frankie Edgar ends his career with a record of 24-11-1 but says it still will take some time to get over this loss. He also wishes if he was going to lose, he wishes it was a decision that would’ve allowed him to actually fight.

“Now it’s over. It’s in my rearview. It’s just f*****g close in the rearview right now,” Edgar said. “But it’s going to get further away like everything does and in the big scheme of things, how f*****g important is it? Is it? I don’t know. It would have been nice to go out on a high note. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I thought I was going to have.

“What sucks, too, I didn’t even get to f*****g go. Maybe it would have been better if I just went and put on another f*****g heartfelt performance and lost a f*****g decision or something like that. I was able to walk away with some bruises knowing that I f*****g put it on the line again. I put it on the line but in a different way,” Edgar concluded. “I really didn’t get to show it and remember, I didn’t know what I was going to do after the last time this happened and I came back because I felt pretty good. My body felt pretty good to do it and I gave it that shot and it didn’t work out. I’ve got to be honest with myself. I don’t want to be but I’ve got to be. Let’s be real. It’s in the past, it’s behind me.”

What is your favorite memory from Frankie Edgar’s career?