"I trained real hard on my jujitsu defense," said Edgar, who is nicknamed "The Answer." "He's going to have a hard time with the new stuff I got from training. I want to win."
The pay-per-view event will begin at 10 p.m. at Arco Arena. For last month's UFC 72, the UFC reported 2.5 million viewers.
Mixed martial arts, or MMA, became popular in the early 1990s and feature a variety of fighting techniques, such as boxing, wrestling, strikes, submissions, and just about any other form of combative arts you can imagine.
Biting, eye-gouging, small-joint manipulation, and genital impact - among other extremely dangerous moves - are not allowed.
UFC fighters compete in a cage similar to some pro-wrestling events. Fight attendance, according to the UFC, is typically 9,000 to 13,000 per card. Most fights are held in California or Nevada.
Edgar, a Toms River native, is a plumber for Annise Mechanical. His father, who owns the company and wrestled in high school, is enthusiastic about his son's UFC career, and Edgar makes time at night and between jobs for training.
His girlfriend thought the fighting "was over after wrestling was over in college," said Edgar, who battled in several unsanctioned fights before joining the organized ranks in 2005. "But I was addicted after a friend of mine shared [MMA] with me. I love the training. . . . It ain't easy, though."
Edgar placed second in a national high school wrestling tournament in 2000, and at Clarion University he was a four-time Division I national qualifier and a 2004 college freestyle all-American while earning a bachelor's degree in political science.
"My wrestling background gave me a good solid start. It made me mentally tough," Edgar said.
Despite his accomplishments in and out of UFC, Edgar is a quiet man. He lets his actions do most of his talking.
"I love fighting," he said. "I just love fighting and love to get W's."
