At the UFC 136 post-fight press conference, Dana White boldly proclaimed that lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was definitively the second best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He declared that the only reason that he wouldn’t place him first was the fact that Anderson Silva has been undefeated in his entire UFC tenure.
White challenged anyone to try and tell him differently, and his reasoning for placing him second was because of the warrior spirit and heart that Edgar showed by taking a beating and coming back to knock out Gray Maynard in the fourth round of their UFC 136 main event.
White does make an interesting point about the heart of Edgar being on full display, but White is a promoter who needs to sell events.
Is Edgar really deserving of that claim?
As Ariel Helwani tried to point out at the press conference, placing Edgar second raises some interesting points as to where someone like Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones should be ranked in the pound-for-pound lists.
While Edgar has certainly shown great heart and comeback ability, men such as Jones and GSP have rarely been tested in their fights and have looked much more dominant than Edgar has.
Say what you will about his style, but GSP won 30-odd rounds while rarely being tested, and Jon Jones has made everyone he faced look like an amateur.
On the other hand, Edgar won the belt from B.J. Penn in a close fight in Abu Dhabi, clearly won the rematch and was then taken to the limit twice by Gray Maynard.
While GSP has one more loss that Edgar has, he has won the belt twice and has had six consecutive title defenses. As we have seen, there is certainly some debate about where Jones should appear in the rankings since he has only one title defense. The truth is that both have looked much more dominant in their time in the UFC than Edgar has.
While there is much to be said about heart, grit and determination, does Frankie Edgar, with two title defenses, one of which was a draw, really deserve to be ranked ahead of Georges St-Pierre? I respectfully have to disagree with Dana White, as does Yahoo! Sports, whose October rankings have him ranked fourth behind Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones.
While pound-for-pound lists are always based on speculation, it’s clear that Edgar has a way to go before he can be compared to someone like GSP.
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