Retired UFC Hall-Of-Famer Making Ill-Advised Return In Bare Knuckle
On Monday, the Uncrowned's Ariel Helwani reported the news: Edgar is unretiring and set to compete in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship on October 4 in his hometown of New Jersey. To put it plainly, it seems that almost everyone besides Edgar believes this is a bad idea.
Edgar will be facing another former UFC fighter in Jimmie Rivera on the card set for the Prudential Center. The only thing standing between Edgar and this comeback appears to be a passing grade from the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.
Edgar's return will take place on a high-profile BKFC card headlined by Mike Perry vs. Jeremy Stephens for the promotion's 'King of Violence' title. The event is expected to be one of the company's biggest of 2025.
The move has Edgar back into the spotlight almost three years after he left his gloves in the Octagon. He had taken a series of losses via savage knockout. It seemed the definitive nature of those losses pushed him to walk away from fighting.
In his prime, Edgar was one of the best in the sport.
He is a former UFC lightweight champion and featherweight contender. While he was never a big striker–which makes this decision all the more perplexing–Edgar built his reputation on heart and resilience.
He scored career-defining over B.J. Penn in 2010 and had iconic fights against Gray Maynard.
Over the course of his career he collected wins against other stars like Charles Oliveira, Urijah Faber, and Chad Mendes. Edgar was a no-doubt choice for the UFC Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 2024.
His final UFC stretch was brutal, though.
Edgar went 2-6 across his last eight bouts, suffering four knockout losses, including a violent finish in his retirement fight against Chris Gutierrez. That decline, combined with his age, is why many fans and analysts are calling this return dangerous.
I searched comments across multiple social media platforms and I couldn't find a single person supporting this idea.
The Ring Magazine's Wade Plemons said:
The MMA Bee posted a Breaking Bad GIF and captioned it, 'Don't do it, Frankie.'
Others said, 'can't take another Frankie highlight reel loss.'
'Oh my god, it's crazy some of these guys just don't care about the damage they've taken, I don't understand it, why Frankie.'
We could seemingly go on forever.
Rivera, meanwhile, presents a legitimate challenge. The 34-year-old former UFC contender has been with BKFC since 2021, tallying a 2-2-1 record. His best bare-knuckle performance came in a 2024 win over ex-Bellator champion Daniel Straus.
In November 2024, he dropped a decision to BKFC featherweight champ Kai Stewart, but he seems far more fit to be dangerous in this format compared to Edgar.
To put it as plainly as possible, this feels like a terrible idea in every way.
Edgar's age, skill set (his base is wrestling) and the fact that he lost three consecutive fights and five of his last six leading to his retirement should tell us something. Apparently, the person who probably should have gotten the message as loud and clear as anyone doesn't believe it.
I don't know Edgar's financial situation, and I hope he's not in dire straits on that end. I also know it is possible BKFC made him an attractive offer.
That said, this just doesn't feel right. We'll see a warrior with a name competing, but he's likely to be a shadow of himself competing in a sport that wouldn't have been his specialty even in his prime.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How did Commanders running backs perform without Brian Robinson?
The world is always changing, so why should it be any different in the NFL? It certainly isn't. In fact, NFL changes are sometimes so sudden. I still remember that November night of 1985 when Joe Theismann's NFL career abruptly came to an end. Abruptness can also come as a result of a coach's decision. Such is the case for Brian Robinson Jr. Sunday, head coach Dan Quinn and GM Adam Peters met with Robinson, expressing to the No. 1 Washington running back for the last three seasons, that they were moving on from him. Thus, the Commanders are attempting to trade Robinson, if they can find a buyer. It's possible a team in need of an inside running back could offer a seventh-round choice, rather than risk waiting to see whom Robinson signs with after the 53-man rosters are revealed. Most likely, one would think the Commanders will have to cut Robinson, not receiving any draft compensation. Consequently, Robinson and the Commanders came to a mutual decision that he would not play, Monday night. Yes, the more some things change, the more some things stay the same, like the Cincinnati Bengals' defense. They managed to make the Commanders' running backs look like NFL elites, causing fans to forget about Robinson altogether. Head coach Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury have more than a few times since their arrival chosen to mention running game coach Anthony Lynn, crediting him for his work and contribution. I realize it was the Bengals' defense, but my goodness, the Commanders rushed 30 times for 185 yards, including two rushing touchdowns. That is 6.2 yards per rushing attempt. Chris Rodriguez got the start and promptly rushed for 62 yards on six carries. Rodriguez had a 40-yard run, a 9-yard run, and an 8-yard run. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, aka "Bill," was called upon to carry the ball 11 times and contributed 46 yards. In his first series, he contributed a 5-yard run and a 27-yard touchdown run. Consequently, in the first quarter alone, Rodriguez and Bill contributed 40 and 27-yard runs. Not to be overlooked are Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols. Ekeler is a very effective third-down receiver out of the backfield. It seems the coaching staff might have determined to remove Ekeler from kickoff returns this season, due to Ekeler suffering two concussions in 2024. Every Commanders' game will also require players to get down the field and tackle in kickoff coverage and punt coverage. Both Rodriguez and McNichols have proven themselves in this area at the NFL level. The move from Robinson is nothing personal. Quinn and Peters simply believe they now have four running backs other than Robinson that fit their multiple needs. Even the NFL rushing success rate in 2024 shows this to be true, where Rodriguez graded at 74.3 percent, McNichols at 58.2, Ekeler at 51.9, and Brian Robinson at 48.7. This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders' running backs justify team's decision on Brian Robinson
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Alabama football 2025 season preview, predictions: Jam Miller
You could certainly make an argument that few players on the Alabama Crimson Tide's 2025 offense are more key to the unit's success this fall than Jam Miller. Alabama's returning leading rusher, the Crimson Tide however will be without Miller to begin the 2025 season, as the running back recently suffered an injury that will likely result in missing time. Looking at the overall impact of Miller when healthy however, it's clear that the veteran running back will be a big part of Alabama's success in 2025, and should be among college football's best at the position when on the field. Here is a preview of the 2025 season for Alabama running back Jam Miller. Jam Miller player information Position: Running Back Jersey Number: No. 26 Height: 5'10 Weight: 221 Class: Senior Hometown: Tyler, Texas High School: Tyler Legacy Jam Miller career stats A senior, Miller is currently entering his fourth season of college football at Alabama, and has appeared in a total of 40 games from 2022-24. Over the past three seasons, Miller has rushed for a combined 1,092 yards and 10 scores on 219 attempts, while also hauling in 21 receptions for 227 yards and two more touchdowns. Jam Miller 2024 stats Miller's 2024 season was likely his best yet at Alabama, appearing in all 13 games for the Crimson Tide a year ago. During his junior campaign, Miller rushed for 668 yards and seven touchdowns on 145 attempts, while also hauling in 16 receptions for 155 yards and another score. Jam Miller recruiting ranking Coming out of high school, Miller was considered as the nation's No. 87 overall prospect in the 2022 class, as well as the No. 6 running back nationally, per the 247Sports Composite rankings. A four-star prospect, Miller was also ranked as the No. 15 prospect in the state of Texas where he attended Tyler Legacy High School, and committed to Alabama back in Nov. 2021 by flipping from Texas. Jam Miller 2025 season outlook While injured to start the season, Miller will be Alabama's starter and No. 1 option at running back when back to full health. Named to the preseason Doak Walker Award watch list, Miller is coming off a career-year, and even despite injury to start the season, could still eclipse those totals in 2025. An experienced player, Miller should make a significant impact in both the rushing and receiving game, and will also be running behind one of college football's top offensive lines, something that should benefit the senior. A potential 1,000-yard back option, expect a strong season from Miller once again, and for the Alabama running back to potentially receive honors at seasons end such as All-SEC. Jam Miller 2025 season prediction 2025 Prediction: 160 rushes, 750 yards, 10 TD, 20 receptions, 200 yards, 1 TD, All-SEC honors Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama football 2025 preview, predictions: Jam Miller
New York Times
10 minutes ago
- New York Times
U.S. Open mixed doubles: Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori take singles stars to school
Of all the players participating in the U.S. Open mixed doubles jamboree, Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori would have the easiest time walking the streets of New York City with barely anyone passing a glance, much less asking for a selfie or an autograph. That's not the regular experience for two defending champions. Advertisement But halfway through this fastest Grand Slam in the modern history of the sport, the only pure doubles team in this doubles competition is well on its way to schooling all-comers. No matter how high they are ranked, how wealthy or famous they might be, or how many titles they might have collected as singles players, Errani and Vavassori's opponents are so far running into a wall of expertise and experience. 'All the doubles guys was saying me, 'You are the only one playing for now, so play also for us a little bit,' Vavassori said in a news conference with a smile after making the semifinals. First, the Italians did away with Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz, the No. 2 seeds in a doubles tournament that was supposed to be all about singles stars. That's why Rybakina and Fritz were seeded and Errani and Vavassori needed a wild card to get in. Fritz and Rybakina mostly played singles on a court with different lines, and promptly lost in straight sets, 4-2, 4-2. Then Andrey Rublev and Karolina Muchová showed up for their doubles lesson. They are excellent athletes who have played for big titles in singles. Muchová has some of the best touch and feel in the game, especially at the net. No matter. Errani and Vavassori shot through the first set in 17 minutes. They needed a tiebreak to get through the second, but when it was over they had won two matches in 98 minutes and had collected $200,000 for making the semifinals. That's as much as they won last year, when they won a tournament comprised of 32 actual doubles teams instead of 16 arranged alliances of stardom. Maybe they dodged a bullet when Daniele Collins and Christian Harrison knocked off Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend in the quarters Tuesday afternoon. Townsend is world No. 1 in doubles, and she and Shelton have played together plenty. They got to the semifinals of the mixed here in 2023. Advertisement But Harrison is a doubles specialist himself. He and Collins have known each other since childhood. They were the last-minute alternates when men's singles No. 1 Jannik Sinner pulled out because of an illness, ending his partnership with Kateřina Siniaková, perhaps the greatest active doubles player in the world, before it got started. Collins and Harrison made their way to the Referee's Office for 10:30 a.m. to sign in and got their shot just before the start of play Tuesday morning. They might just have some magic going. Collins showed up at the press conference with her five-year-old pup Quincy. Life is good. 'I think we first talked about this when we were like 15,' said Collins, who was hanging out at a friend's house Monday night when Harrison called to tell her that they were on the verge of getting into the $2.35 million event, with $1 million going to the winning team. Either way, there's going to be at least one doubles specialist in the final – either Harrison or the Errani / Vavassori duo. They will face the winner of whichever team emerges from the battle of the singles stars: Jack Draper and Jessica Pegula versus Iga Świątek and Casper Ruud under the lights in what should be a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium Wednesday night. There was always a chance this would happen when the higher minds of the U.S. Open decided to make mixed doubles at the year's final Grand Slam a pre-tournament spectacle almost all about singles stars. Vavassori and Errani's mastery of the doubles court shows why the tradeoffs may need adjusting for the future: Cutting out lots of Vavassori's and Errani's doubles comrades means cutting down the enticing matchups of singles vs. doubles. The payoffs were still apparent on the first day of the two-day competition. The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was buzzing half an hour before any of the action got underway, with fans streaming across the fountain plaza in droves on what would otherwise have been a pretty sleepy day during the qualifying tournament and practice week. By early afternoon, Arthur Ashe Stadium, where tickets were required, was nearly packed. There were more than 5,000 fans in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Seats there were free. Advertisement 'How cool is that?' Collins said. They were making plenty of noise, too. And why wouldn't they? The schedule included some of the biggest names in the game: Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu, Ben Shelton, Casper Ruud, Venus Williams, Mirra Andreeva, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, and even Świątek, fresh off the previous night's hard-fought win over Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open which took her back to No. 2 in the world in singles. Swiatek, took an ice-bath, showered, ate, did some media, hopped on a plane, landed past midnight, got to her hotel at 1:30 a.m. and fell asleep about an hour later. At 10 a.m., Ruud looked across the gym and saw his partner stretching on the floor. 'Wildly impressive,' Ruud said of his partner. 'Iga will have a good night's sleep tonight. She deserves that.' Indeed she does. Świątek, a six-time Grand Slam champion in singles and former French Open finalist in doubles, reminded the world just how versatile a player she can be. She put on a show at the net with her quick hands and touch, she won baseline battles with her male opponents, and she showed the understanding of doubles geometry that people who play singles exclusively just don't have. 'For me I think it's a reminder that tennis should be fun,' Świątek said of the experience. 'When we're just preparing for the singles, there's a lot of pressure and expectations on us.' There was Alcaraz floating from nowhere across the back of the court to find a ball that had long gone by his partner Raducanu, seemingly ending the point. Instead, Alcaraz floated the ball over the net post into the open court. There was Shelton, bombing that serve, hitting volleys with his knees on the pavement and sliding balls nearly parallel to the net to light up the crowd. Świątek rolled crosscourt forehands and backhands with anyone who dared to match her, and then decided to beat them. Andreeva and Djokovic got into a seriously high-octane crosscourt forehand fight. Advertisement This is what the U.S. Open wanted when they rolled out this format earlier in the year. They wanted big names and big crowds and big buzz, even if that meant a new-fangled scoring system to keep matches to about an hour and holding mixed doubles well before the start of the singles. Halfway through, it seems to be working. Arthur Ashe Stadium should be near its 24,000 capacity for the semifinals and finals Wednesday night, an unheard of crowd for a doubles competition. They figured it would go like that. But Errani and Vavassori, who know their way around the doubles court better than anyone else, are turning into the star pair on the court. Vavassori hounds the net with his teradactyl-like wingspan. Errani sneaks into the open space at the last minute, reading the next shot before it leaves her opponents' strings, a task made that much easier when the opponents don't generally play doubles. They are on a mission that they believe is bigger than themselves. 'It's important to show also that doubles players are great players,' Vavassori said after making the semifinals. 'I think our main goal in the future will be to change a little bit the narrative because singles players are amazing on singles, but doubles players are amazing in doubles. If doubles player play against singles, sometimes they play better because they are more organized.' Indeed, the rackets and the balls are the same, but in so many ways, doubles is a different sport than singles. It's all about anticipation, and tiny steps, and court coverage, and using the hands of a billiards master to find the seams in the defense. It is not at all unusual for a great doubles team to take apart two great singles players who come together for a shotgun wedding, as Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal did for the Paris Olympics last year. Alcaraz can hit through most players. Hitting through two guarding the same court is another matter, as Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek showed the Spaniards in the quarterfinals. Advertisement In the big picture it may not matter all that much. The goal was to take an underserved competition and turn it into a happening. That is undoubtedly underway, even if Draper used the dreaded phrase 'exhibition format' to describe the competition. Pegula gently told him that was a no-no. Even Vavassori, who along with Errani had criticized a format that cut out nearly all the players who make their living off doubles, was giving what sounded like one-and-a-half thumbs up. 'It's a great thing for doubles to be seen by more people,' he said. 'I have to give them credit. I also said it before, playing this format is great for doubles and mixed doubles to develop in the future. Like create a tournament with singles stars that are more seen on the tour is a great thing for doubles.' He knows his sport is in some trouble. No one markets the players, so no one knows the players. 'If you go to see a sport and you don't know the protagonist of a sport, it's impossible,' he said. Everyone knew the protagonists Tuesday, and they will know most of them Wednesday night. By the time it's over, Vavassori and Errani might not be so anonymous on the New York streets. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
