Frankie Edgar showed why he is perhaps the most resilient fighter in all of MMA last night when he fought back from a near knockout in the first round to knockout Gray Maynard in the fourth round of their UFC 136 contest.
The UFC lightweight champion has now earned at least one victory over every opponent he has ever fought and despite the fact that he took some serious damage in each of his past two fights, it appears that he is ready to be the UFC’s next long-term champion… Or does it?
As Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg spoke about last night, Edgar is the champion in what may very well be the most stacked division ever assembled in the sport of mixed martial arts. With contenders like Clay Guida, Ben Henderson, Joe Lauzon, Melvin Guillard and countless others currently competing at 155-pounds, there is still a lot of competition for Frankie Edgar’s throne. Not only that, but it looks like it’s about to get a lot better with the addition of Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez.
Though it hasn’t been officially announced yet, UFC President Dana White made it very apparent that the promotion is well on its way to signing Melendez to a long-term contract. Not only that, he alluded to the possibility that Melendez may skip over all contenders in the division and get an instant shot at the UFC lightweight championship in what will essentially be a title unification bout.
As dominant as Frankie Edgar has been at times in his fights with BJ Penn and even with Gray Maynard in the later rounds, there is a very realistic concern that he may be taking too much damage early in fights. Gray Maynard punished Edgar in first round of both their second and third fights, but while been impressive in his UFC career, he is certainly not known as a finisher.
But unlike Gray Maynard who has only finished two opponents in 13 career MMA fights (technically three if you count the fight against Rob Emerson), Gilbert Melendez is a stone-cold killer who has finished over half of his opponents, checking in with 12 finishes in 21 career fights.
Melendez doesn’t have the size or strength that Maynard does, but quite frankly, it hasn’t been Maynard’s size that has caused Edgar problems in their fights. Despite having some of the best boxing skills in the UFC, it has been Edgar’s sometimes shaky striking defense that has allowed Maynard to nearly knock him out on numerous occasions.
Maynard tried his hardest, but he was just unable to finish off the lightweight champion. But you can rest assured that if he is lucky enough to get Edgar reeling, Gilbert Melendez will not fail to finish.
There are plenty of UFC fighters who deserve a title shot right now, but the reality is that the one who has the best chance of defeating Frankie Edgar might not even be officially part of the UFC roster yet.
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