Former lightweight king Frankie Edgar has gone the distance in four of the five title-fights including his recent loss to current champion Benson Henderson. However, while many men would fatigue in his position, in each of the encounters it seemed Edgar could have gone another few frames if the rules required such to be the case.

Edgar has long been considered one of MMA’s best conditioned athletes thanks in large part to his work ethic and involvement in training at Ricardo Almeida Jiu-Jitsu, the Sports Science Lab, and other top-level outlets. “The Answer” recently shed some light on his preparation for bouts, specifically his rematch with Henderson in less than two weeks at UFC 150, where he spoke some about the process.

“You wanna get in shape for your fight but you also wanna feel good about it,” explained Edgar in series of videos promoting the fight called 155 Reasons. “You want to make sure your core is getting good, your agility, your speed…a lot of people think strength training is just going in there and getting your heart rate up…which it is, but obviously a lot of agility and a lot of speed come into play, especially for footwork in boxing and stand-up. And then the core stuff for jiu-jitsu.”

“Nobody wants to get up early but once I’m up I’m good to go,” he added, admitting the work was hard but also adding that the rewards have been evident. “It’s what I do. I had to motivate myself to go to work when I was a plumber. I don’t have to motivate myself any more now.”

Check out the complete video below with comments from Edgar’s coaches/training partners as well: