UFC legend Frankie Edgar has explained what he wants to do before retiring from mixed martial arts.

Over the course of the last few decades we haven’t seen many fighters as universally beloved as Frankie Edgar. The 40-year-old is a former UFC lightweight champion, he’s fought the best of the best, and he’s perhaps one of the nicest guys in the entire sport.

Mixed martial arts has benefitted greatly from his presence but after his recent run of form, it seemed inevitable that he’d eventually opt to hang up the gloves.

However, while he’s certainly planning on walking away, he told Brett Okamoto that he wants one more walk to the Octagon before finally calling it quits once and for all - and he’s got a man in mind for an opponent.

“I think I need to announce my retirement, have a retirement fight, so I can ride off into the sunset a little bit.”

“I want one more fight to be my last fight for sure. I guess it’s bittersweet, it’s got to happen, I’m 40 years old, looking at 41 in a couple months. I feel great though, I don’t feel tired going to the gym, I’m not that guy.”

“MSG, the world’s most famous arena, you can’t beat that [for his last fight].

“Honestly, I’m never one to call anybody out or pick anybody out, I usually let UFC figure that out - but, I’ll say a name. It’s more of a legacy fight and I know he has a fight coming up, who knows how it could happen, but I think Dominick Cruz. He was a champion at 135 when I was a champion at 155, I think that could be an interesting fight.”

The last run

Frankie Edgar has only been finished four times in his career but unfortunately, all of those defeats have taken place in the last four years.

Brian Ortega, The Korean Zombie, Cory Sandhagen and Marlon Vera have all been able to put him away with the last two losses being particularly brutal.

Frankie is still more than talented enough to mix it up with some of the best fighters in the world in his weight class but after taking that kind of damage, it makes sense why he’d want to think about retiring.