Issue 133

Mark Henry, boxing coach to Frankie Edgar, talks through the training techniques of the UFC multiweight fighter.

How long have you been working with Frankie?

"Since his second professional fight. Literally, right after his first pro fight. We met each other through Steve Rivera.”

When you first started training him, what were his strengths and his weaknesses?

“He just basically wrestled (laughs), but he had what I call the 'it' factor, which I think a lot of fighters don't have. A lot of people only look at stuff like speed or power, but there are so many other intangibles. 

“For example, when he's hurt, he still comes to work. When he's ill, he still comes to work out. When he gets hit, he still keeps coming forward. He's the type of person that will pick up another fighter's bad tendencies when they're fighting. Frankie has all of those factors. It's the sort of factors that most champions do have.”

His resilience is insane. Does it take a shot or two to get him out of the gate?

“That's right. He doesn't automatically come out of the gates straight away, but he's gotten a lot better during recent fights. He starts off a bit slow at the start, but what people don't understand about Frankie is the weight issue. 

“He's doing something that nobody else is really doing in MMA right now and that everyone tells him that he should move down to featherweight, but he walks around at about 15lb less than most featherweights. Frankie walks around at the same weight as Urijah Faber or Dominick Cruz does. 

“We saw Cruz and he weighed around 160lb, and Frankie weighed 158lb. Imagine Dominick Cruz or Urijah fighting at 155lb, or Benson Henderson fighting at 185lb. For him [Henderson] to accomplish what Frankie has, he'd have to beat Anderson Silva.”

What does a typical day of training with Frankie consist of?

“Pretty much everything. On Monday, we'll go to Phil Nurse's gym and do some Muay Thai, then go to Renzo Gracie's Academy to do some jiu-jitsu with John Danaher.

“On a Tuesday, he and a bunch of guys will go down to Ricardo's (Almeida), and then he'll come to me after sparring and we'll talk about what went right and what went wrong. 

“Wednesday is a day of wrestling, and then he'll get with a personal trainer. Thursday consists of boxing training with a really high-level professional. On Friday, he'll go back to Ricardo's for sparring. Saturday is another personal training day, plus MMA sparring. 

“It varies a little bit too, because now we're doing a little bit of Muay Thai sparring, We're really deep into the camp right now. We've got a lot of quality sparring partners coming soon. We've got Dustin Poirier coming to train, Edson Barboza is supposed to be coming down, Evan Dunham, Josh Thompson. We've got some great guys coming down.”

How does Frankie's boxing match up with some of the professional boxers he works with?

“I'll tell you this, he does very well. We go to a lot of gyms and spar with some guys with credible records and he does well against them. The one guy that really pushes him and makes him a lot better is Denis Doughlin. He's a national champion, former New Jersey Golden Gloves champion, former New York Golden Gloves champion and nearly went to the 2008 Olympics. Denis is a really good pro and he really pushes Frankie hard.”

Frankie says he needs to improve on all areas of his game. As his coach, where would you like to see him improve?

“I'd have to say everywhere too. It's one of those things where we were so used to wrestler/boxers as we've faced so many of them in the past. Benson does a really great job of utilizing his kicks and knees, so it's something that we've had to work on. BJ [Penn] didn't kick much, [Sean] Sherk didn't kick much, so we didn't really have to work on those areas. It's great when someone forces you to become a better fighter. We're trying to make Frankie a better all round fighter. 

“We're also working on him standing with southpaws. Frankie has never stood up with a southpaw. He fought Jim Miller and Spencer Fisher, but he really wrestled them during that fight. Back then he really counted on his wrestling, so Ben was really the first southpaw that he'd stood up with. It takes a little more to get used to. We've had three months to prepare for a southpaw.”