Frankie Edgar’s planned return from retirement ended before it began when he was pulled from his fight at BKFC 82 just days before a scheduled clash with Jimmie Rivera.
The reason Edgar was pulled from the card came down to concerns from the organization’s medical team, but BKFC President David Feldman said the promotion might revisit the possibility of booking Edgar for another event down the road. Now days removed from BKFC’s debut in New Jersey, Feldman revealed Edgar was not happy about being pulled from the event despite the former UFC lightweight champion still receiving a paycheck without competing.
“Honestly, I don’t even know if he even wants to fight with us again,” Feldman told MMA Fighting. “I think he’s a little upset with us, as maybe he should be, but at the end of the day, we were looking out for his best interests. He is getting a very, very respectable check. I don’t think he’s mad at us for that.
“I think he’s mad at us because we took away an opportunity from him. Again, sometimes you have to save fighters from themselves, and I’m not saying that we saved Frankie from himself, but I’m saying for that night, our medical team wasn’t prepared for that and that’s why. Will we revisit it? We’ll certainly talk to him if he’s interested, we’ll definitely dive deep, and if we can make it happen we will.”
While Feldman can’t reveal specific medical details related to the decision to pull Edgar from the card, he admitted there were concerns over the long-term damage the 43-year-old fighter has suffered during his career. When Edgar first announced his plans to compete again after retiring in 2022, he was coming back off three straight knockout losses that ended his career.
Feldman says growing concerns about potential legal action over allowing athletes to continue to compete while potentially dealing with long-term brain damage weighed heavily on BKFC when considering whether or not to allow Edgar to fight.
“There’s a lot of talk right now and a lot of things flying around about CTE right now and actually coming after commissions and coming after promoters for it,” Feldman said. “That definitely had something to do with our decision. That certainly had something to do with our decision.
“When we do anything, we’re going to weigh risk and reward. What’s the risk? What’s the reward? The reward on this one, we didn’t think outweighed the risks, that’s why we did that.”
Despite Edgar being removed from the card, Feldman knew it was still important to pay the New Jersey native for all the hard work he did helping to promote the event.
“Listen, he promoted it, he went to every appearances I asked him to go to, he did any interview I asked him to go to,” Feldman said. “He did a watch party at his dad’s bar or uncle’s bar, something like that. He really went above and beyond to try and help us so of course, he had to get taken care of.”
It remains to be seen if Edgar ever actually ends up competing for BKFC, but Feldman stands by the decision to pull him from the this past Saturday’s card.
Feldman acknowledged it wasn’t an easy call, but one that was actually met with overwhelmingly positive reactions from fans and supporters tuning in to watch the bare-knuckle fights from New Jersey.
“You know what made me feel good about the situation, when they did post it was cancelled and 99 percent of the fans said thank you,” Feldman said. “‘Thank you for looking out for the fighters. Thank you, thank you, thank you.’
“Instead of saying, ‘You screwed over Frankie Edgar, that’s a bunch of crap.’ It didn’t go that way and that’s what made me at least feel good that it was the right decision.”
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