The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A LEGENDARY career which spanned several decades came to an end this month when an iconic Bahamian athlete stepped away from the octagon for good.

Yves Edwards, 38, officially announced his retirement from mixed martial arts through his Facebook page in a direct announcement to his fans.

“I’ve thought about how to say this for a week now, but there’s no better way than to just do it. So here goes. First I’d like to say thank you to all the people that I’ve met through and because of fighting, friends, training partners, coaches, fight fans, doctors and even some promoters/matchmakers. A lot of you guys have always shown me nothing but love and I really appreciate that,” he said.

“Fighting has been a part of my life ever since I was 17 and that makes this a hard pill to swallow but it’s time for me to end this chapter and move on to the next part of my life. So thank you again to all the people that have supported me through this, whether it was through cheers, training, coaching or anything else at all.”

Edwards made the announcement shortly after his latest loss in the Ultimate Fighting Championship series.

Edwards (42-22-1 MMA, 10-10 UFC), lost by submission to Akbarh Arreola (23-8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) via a handbar at the 1:52 mark in the first round of round one.

The lightweight bout was part of the preliminary card of UFC Fight Night 57 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, on November 22.

It was the first UFC victory for Arreola, while Edwards lost his fifth consecutive bout. It aired on FOX Sports following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of a main card on FOX Sports 1.

Prior to the Arreola fight, Edwards was defeated by Piotr Hallmann via submission at UFC Fight Night 42 in June.

Since then, Edwards’ drought has included a controversial loss to Daron Cruickshank at UFC on Fox 8.

Cruickshank, who was a late addition to the card after Spencer Fisher withdrew, received a 30-27 advantage from two judges while Edwards was scored 30-27 by the other. A visibly upset and disgruntled Edwards left the fight abruptly following the announcement.

Prior to the Cruickshank fight, he lost by split decision to Isaac Vallie-Flagg at UFC 156 in February. His last win came in a “Knockout of the Night” win over Jeremy Stephens in December 2012 at UFC on Fox 5.

Edwards was defeated in the ring by Yancy Medeiros in the preliminary round of the under card of UFC Fight Night 31:UFC Fight for the Troops 3 on November 6, 2013 at Fort Campbell in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

However, the fight was later ruled a “no contest” after Mederios tested positive for a banned substance. Before the “no contest” he had lost his last two fights and lost four of his last five.

Edwards appeared on www.mmafighting.com on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to discuss the reasons behind his retirement.

“Well, I’ve just been kind of thinking about it for a bit, especially after last week, and I was just trying to weigh things out. My training camp felt really good, I had really good sparring sessions, had everything went really well, the conditioning, the weight cuts were easy, everything worked out well except fight night,” Edwards said. “I just don’t need to be doing this. I can still do those things in the gym, but like my last couple of performances I have just soiled the things that I’ve done in the past, and I don’t want to continue to dirty that more than I have.”

Edwards said that he still loves to compete, but that he didn’t want to overstay his ability in the cage.

“I still want to [fight], but I have to be smart,” he said. “I don’t want to be the guy that...I stuck around longer than I should, but I don’t want to be the guy who stuck around too long. The guy that’s fighting for a pay cheque, or the guy that is risking his health.”

Many in the MMA community reacted to the news of Edwards announcement and paid homage to one of the veterans in the sport.

UFC Hall of Famer and five-time champion Randy Couture said: “Yves, always been one of my favourites brother. Loved your style and your humble demeanor. We will all miss watching scrap. All the best to you.

Edwards is credited with inventing the “thug-jitsu” fighting style and as a lightweight fighter in organisations such as the UFC, PRIDE, Bodog-FIGHT, and EliteXC.

Based in Texas, Edwards is touted by MMA analysts as a well-rounded fighter with a strong boxing background. He has also trained with Lewis Wood, a sixth ranked WBA featherweight boxer, in addition to his experience in Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.