“Absolutely,” Edgar said. “I’ve been going to New York and going to the Garden since I was a kid, so to be able to fight there for the second time, five years apart, it’s definitely special, especially with everything that’s going on. To be able to fight close to home is cool, and finally, with some fans. It just gives you that energy. I don’t know of many fights where I didn’t have the crowd cheering my name, so that’s the plan – get the crowd behind me, get them screaming ‘Frankie’ over and over again, and I think we get this W.”
It’s an important fight for Edgar, who is coming off a first-round knockout loss to recent title challenger Cory Sandhagen in February. It was a crushing defeat, but also one where he got caught by a knee that would have finished anyone it landed on. Still, Edgar took some time (not a lot for the notorious gym rat) to enjoy being around his family and also make sure his kids got to their sports practices.
“I definitely took a little time to make sure I healed up, but I’m a gym guy,” he laughs. “I don’t do too good at home. So I don’t know if there was any chilling out, but my oldest son is playing football right now, I have my middle guy wrestling every weekend, and my daughter’s doing gymnastics, so I was carting them around and helping my wife with those things, and just being a dad.”
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Family is number one on Edgar’s priority list, but when he got back to the gym, he was all-in once more, preparing for yet another rising star who knows that beating Frankie Edgar is a career-altering accomplishment.
“It’s a good burden,” he said of always having a target on his back. “It’s motivating. And I put all that pressure on myself. Every fight, I’m the one that’s trying to outdo myself so these guys can’t get me.”
The thing is, though, as good and as respected as Vera is, if Edgar beats him, that doesn’t necessarily change the trajectory of his career like if it would Vera’s if the roles were reversed. Edgar doesn’t agree.
“In our sport, you’re only as good as your last fight and my last fight didn’t go so good, so I need to rebound. For me, in my mind, it’s just as important as it is in Marlon Vera’s mind.”
Come on, Frankie.
He laughs.
“For my mental health, it’s very important.”
Okay, fair enough.
