UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar showed that despite his smaller size, he’s more than capable of fighting bigger opponents at 155 lbs.
On Saturday night, Edgar proved it again by earning a big win over Gray Maynard in their trilogy match.
Having lost their first fight in 2008, and then fighting to a draw in January of this year, Edgar put a big exclamation point on this meeting by stopping ‘The Bully’ by fourth round TKO.
Maynard had the champ in trouble in the first again, looking as if he could finish the fight early, but Edgar was able to tough it out and survive. That seemed to breath life into Edgar once more, as he outstruck Maynard over the next three rounds, finally wobbling Maynard with an uppercut in the fourth.
In Edgar’s words, he “smelled blood” and went in for the finish, ending Maynard’s undefeated streak and improving his own record to 14-1-1.
After the fight, Edgar spoke about the win to UFC.com.
“I came to much quicker this time around but I was like, ‘man.’ We bounced back last time and I don’t think it was as bad as the last first round so I figured I could close the gap a little sooner. …I’m nothing without my team, I couldn’t do any of this. I’m high energy, I’m fast paced. I’m probably smaller than Gray, I’m smaller than a lot of 155ers out there but I know I just gotta keep moving and keep working to my strengths. I think it was on a transition. I caught him with a nice right and I seem him stumble and it was like, I smell blood, man, let’s take him out.”
It’s unclear who may be next for the UFC champ, with talk of bringing Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez over, and Joe Lauzon’s stunning win over Melvin Guillard on the same UFC 136 card. UFC President Dana White even mentioned at the post-fight press conference that he would like to see Edgar step into the Octagon against featherweight champ Jose Aldo, so I guess we’ll just have to enjoy this moment before we get to dream about the next fight.