News Frankie Edgar has been inducted into the UFC Hall Of Fame

[NoSmilez]

Hell he wasn’t even supposed to beat Penn let alone finish him. I give him tons of credit for that. But he wasn’t a finisher. Just like Chuck Liddell wasn’t a great submission artist or Anderson Silva wasn’t a world class wrestler. Frankie’s resume speaks for itself. We don’t have to pretend he’s something he wasn’t in order to acknowledge that he was a great fighter.

I think it's due to his size at LW. He spent the better part of his career in that division. He had to outwork people that were a little bigger than him. He has a better finishing rate at FW before he started to decline. He just had too many back and hip surgeries/issues.

 

[HavokHarmon]

He finished Mendes, Maynard, Swanson, Penn or Yair, who are very durable.

Penn was definitely not durable when Frankie finished him lol. That fight looked like a lamb being taken to the slaughter.

 

[HavokHarmon]

I think it's due to his size at LW. He spent the better part of his career in that division. He had to outwork people that were a little bigger than him. He has a better finishing rate at FW before he started to decline. He just had too many back and hip surgeries/issues.

Yeah the size question is an interesting one in my opinion and I guess we’ll never really know how he would have looked if he had fought lower for more of his career. I’ll probably get flamed for saying this but I think he might have been one of those guys who benefited from fighting up. I think the lack of a weight cut combined with the speed and agility advantage that being smaller often gave him played into his strengths.

But it’s definitely one of those unknowable things. How would he have looked against TJ or Cruz? Who knows. Maybe their movement would have been too much for him and he would have struggled to keep up. Or maybe the size advantage would have allowed him to just take them down and maul them. Either way though, I’m glad he had the career that he did.

 

[honzo]

Never enjoyed his point pillowfisting fighting style tbh.

Didn't realise that was a part of the HOF criteria

 

[NoSmilez]

Yeah the size question is an interesting one in my opinion and I guess we’ll never really know how he would have looked if he had fought lower for more of his career. I’ll probably get flamed for saying this but I think he might have been one of those guys who benefited from fighting up. I think the lack of a weight cut combined with the speed and agility advantage that being smaller often gave him played into his strengths.

But it’s definitely one of those unknowable things. How would he have looked against TJ or Cruz? Who knows. Maybe their movement would have been too much for him and he would have struggled to keep up. Or maybe the size advantage would have allowed him to just take them down and maul them. Either way though, I’m glad he had the career that he did.

He came up a little too early. Forgive me if my timeline is cloudy but I don’t even believe the FW division existed for the UFC when he made his debut.

Frankie probably chose that weight class because he had to. He wrestled at 141 in college. There are no fights or money below 155 on the east coast. I don’t think he had the regional following like Faber.

 

[pankrat]

Penn was definitely not durable when Frankie finished him lol. That fight looked like a lamb being taken to the slaughter.

Take Penn out of the list if you wish.
Doesnt change the fact that Frankie has a fairly good finishing rate when fighting guys his own size, even when very durable.
Not a below average finishing rate in the elite. So its what it is

 

[HavokHarmon]

He came up a little too early. Forgive me if my timeline is cloudy but I don’t even believe the FW division existed for the UFC when he made his debut.

Frankie probably chose that weight class because he had to. He wrestled at 141 in college. There are no fights or money below 155 on the east coast. I don’t think he had the regional following like Faber.

Yeah that’s almost certainly the reason he was at lw as far as I know.

 

[Willy Beamish]

Can't think of anyone else more deserving. He was quite inspirational for most of his career which is rare in this sport.

you mustn't be thinking very hard then.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Take Penn out of the list if you wish.
Doesnt change the fact that Frankie has a fairly good finishing rate when fighting guys his own size, even when very durable.
Not a below average finishing rate in the elite. So its what it is

You make some good points so it made me curious what it would look like on paper. I figured, it’s entirely possible that I gave him that reputation in my own mind and it kind of stuck, so I wanted to check against it. I compiled some career stats, there’s obviously many different ways to interpret these but broadly speaking these all seem relevant. As a side note, I don’t actually know what weight Edgar competed at for the first 6 fights of his career as they were outside of the UFC and I couldn’t find weigh in numbers so for the sake of these stats I’m assuming it was at 155. If I’m wrong that changes the numbers.


Career: 24-11-1

11 finishes

67% win rate

45% finish rate



UFC Career: 18-11-1

7 finishes

60% win rate

38% finish rate rate



Career Lightweight: 15-3-1

7 finishes

83% win rate

46% finish rate



UFC Lightweight: 9-3-1

3 finishes

75% win rate

23% finish rate



UFC Featherweight: 8-5

4 finishes

61% win rate

50% finish rate



UFC Bantamweight: 1-3

0 finishes

25% win rate

0% finish rate



UFC Under Lightweight: 9-8

4 finishes

52% win rate

44% finish rate

It’s interesting to note that while Edgar has a better finish rate under 155 lbs, his overall win rate is much worse. It’s possible that that this is due to the fact that he didn’t drop down in weight until later in his career and his bantamweight fights occured when he was well passed his prime, but even if we just look at his featherweight numbers his win rate dips significantly. There are a variety of possible takeaways from this. It’s possible that at 155 Edgar was a better fighter but a worse finisher than he was at lower weight classes, and vice versa. It’s also possible that he simply got worse over time and his slipping record is merely indicative of his deterioration rather than a reflection of his abilities at that weight class compared to others.

Having said all that, based on these numbers I’d say he’s not a finisher.

 

[HavokHarmon]

He finished Mendes, Maynard, Swanson, Penn or Yair, who are very durable.

He didn’t finish Swanson, he won a decision.

 

[pankrat]

He didn’t finish Swanson, he won a decision.

Frankie did finish Swanson. By a neck crack, few months after finishing BJ and a year before he KOed Mendes.

Excuse me, but it' doesnt seem you have any solid knowledge about what you are talking about.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Frankie did finish Swanson. By a neck crack, few months after finishing BJ and a year before he KOed Mendes.

Excuse me, but it' doesnt seem you have any solid knowledge about what you are talking about.

Shit my bad, I saw he decisioned him when I was running through how many decisions he had. Forgot they fought twice.

 

[ThePimblettEra]

Fucking legend.
Well deserved.