Frankie Edgar Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Frankie Edgar temporarily lost memory after knockout loss to Cory Sandhagen

UFC veteran bantamweight Frankie Edgar suffered the scariest knockout of 2021 to date less than 30 seconds into his fight versus Cory Sandhagen last Saturday night: 

Per Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Edgar still doesn't remember walking out of the octagon after he regained consciousness, and the 39-year-old also said on Thursday that he couldn't remember the name of his opponent while speaking with doctors and coaches after the loss. 

"It's part of the game; I'm going to share it," Edgar said of his latest UFC experience. "It's not something I'm proud of, obviously. Some people may think it's scary, but I've dealt with this kind of thing before, and if you're in the fight game, you've probably heard these stories before.

"I was in the back. I remember sitting around the doctor, [coaches Mark Henry and Ricardo Almeida] were next to me, and I'm like, 'Damn, Mark. What happened?' He's like, 'You fought.' And I just couldn't remember who the f--- I fought. I'm like, 'Who'd I fight?' And he said, 'Sandhagen.' And I'm trying to remember training for the guy and I could not remember training for him. I was like, 'Since when was I supposed to fight him?' And he's like, 'F---ing two months. We've been training for two months.'"

Edgar explained that his memory began to return as he was being transported to a local hospital. He was released later that night.

Despite the frightening setback and the fact that he's no longer in his prime, Edgar told ESPN he intends to return to the octagon in July at 135 pounds.

"Losing sucks. I hate it. Everyone hates it," Edgar added. "You almost don't want to do anything after, you know? You have these thoughts like, 'Man, I don't know if I want to do this.' And Mark told me, 'Dude, what are you talking about? One win and you erase that loss.' So I'm not thinking of stopping any time soon. At least not now, not after this one.

"I don't want to be the guy that someone has to tell that I need to walk away, but it may take that. I don't know. The type of person I am, it may take my coaches and my wife to be like, 'Oh, it's time to walk away.' I just know that time is not now. And I feel like they know that time is not now."

According to Okamoto, Edgar has been knocked out three times since 2018. He did, however, defeat Pedro Munhoz last August. 

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