Too soon? Recently-stopped Frankie Edgar shuts down brain critics ahead of UFC Atlantic City return

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar, was knocked out for the first time in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career earlier this month in the UFC 222 co-main event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Watch the replay here.

So it came as a surprise to learn the 36-year-old “Answer” was booked to make a quick turnaround at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 128 show in his backyard of Atlantic City, New Jersey, expected to air on FOX Sports 1 on Sat. April 21, 2018.

Full details on that booking here.

Perhaps that’s the difference between ordinary folks and warriors, which feels like a much more poetic way to shout JUST BLEED! Or maybe the promotion learned nothing from this “crazy” decision.

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge,” Edgar wrote on Instagram. “While the ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or as a curse.”

I blame the male ego.

The sport of MMA is still too young to gauge the longterm impact of cage fighting, at least as it pertains to the onset of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It also doesn’t help that CTE doesn’t play by the rules.

Some fighters can go 100 fights and be fine, while others only need one or two significant blows before they forget how to count to 20. Let’s hope Edgar (22-6-1) is able to avoid a similar fate, but it should be noted that his opponent, Cub Swanson (25-8), is a stand-up fighter with 11 knockouts.

Will it be 12 next month in “The Garden State?”