
Former UFC champion Frankie Edgar was set to make his combat sports return under the BKFC banner, but it wasn’t meant to be. The promotion cancelled his bout on short notice, leaving the veteran fighter frustrated and disappointed.
Edgar has been out of the cage since 2022 and was eager to face UFC veteran Jimmie Rivera at BKFC 82, but the fight was scrapped due to medical issues. BKFC CEO David Feldman disclosed that despite the cancellation, Edgar was still compensated, a claim Edgar confirmed. However, the former UFC champ expressed his displeasure with how the promotion handled the situation.
“I was training for six, seven weeks. I got a week out from the fight, and we get an email, my manager gets an email from someone at BKFC stating that the owner is leaving for Manchester and doesn’t have a phone on him,” Edgar said. “He can’t call you, but he’ll call you eventually. But in the meantime, his doctor recommended I don’t fight based on my age, consecutive TKO losses, my layoff, and my record, which sounds fugazi. That was before he’d even seen my medicals, which is kind of crazy, especially since this happened just a week before the fight.”
Edgar noted that the promotion had known all of those details months earlier when the contract was signed. He also stated that he passed every required medical test.
“I got a physical, I got a blood test, I got an eye exam,” Edgar said. “Then I had to go to three different heart tests, a stress test, an echo test, and a carotid test. Then I also went to a neurologist, got an MRI and an MRA. Every single doctor said my stuff was great. The promotion tried to say they weren’t getting my medicals, which is bullshit — they got all of them. They didn’t send my medicals to the commission at all.”
According to Edgar, even the commission later confirmed his medicals were in perfect condition.
“Someone from the commission told me, ‘Your MRI hasn’t changed since 2021. You have no white brain matter,’ which is what they look for to check for damage. He said, ‘You can tell your wife and family you’ve got a clean bill of health if you chose to fight more.’”

Despite having no initial plans to return to fighting, Edgar said BKFC repeatedly approached him with offers.
“I wasn’t thinking about fighting,” Edgar said. “They came to me, I ignored them once. Then they came again. My manager and BKFC came up with a deal. He gave me a number — a pretty high number — and I said no. They came back with the number I would do it for, which was a very significant amount of money. That’s the only reason I got off the couch.”
Edgar said he feels used by the promotion, believing they only wanted him to sell tickets. He explained how much the training camp took out of him, especially since he spent valuable time away from his family for a fight that never happened.
“I don’t know what BKFC is going to do, but this ain’t a good look,” Edgar said. “I want to be more mad about it, but I can’t let it consume me. You guys dogged me in my home state, that’s crazy. They came to me. I did everything they wanted. I went to every promotion, hosted a watch party, went to the Devils game, did podcast after podcast promoting the fight. I did everything for them, that’s f*cked.”
For now, Frankie Edgar has no plans to sue BKFC, admitting he might have been paid more not to fight than most of the competitors at BKFC 82.
Still, he’s unhappy with how the situation unfolded and vows never to compete for the promotion again, though he remains open to future fighting opportunities elsewhere, given his clean bill of health.