(Photo by Scott Petersen for MMAWeekly.com)
Many critics and fans felt that coming into last nights title bout Frankie Edgar had little chance of defending his title against a man who handled him easily in their first fight. The odds on favorite was Gray Maynard who sported an undefeated record and was the only man to defeat Edgar in the past.
One of the main issues was Edgar’s size, he’s smaller than most lightweight fighters which was very evident when compared to Maynard in the octagon last night. Edgar looked so much smaller as if he was a welterweight taking on a light-heavyweight fighter.
The one thing that everyone overlooked, including us here at The MMA News, was Edgar’s heart and his ability to persevere despite whatever the critics had to say about him.
We were almost proven right in the first round as Maynard knocked Edgar down to the mat three times with punches and followed up with two more takedowns. “The Bully” did everything he could in the first five minutes to finish his opponent but Edgar held on.
Even UFC president Dana White noted in a recent video interview that he wouldn’t have faulted Yves Lavigne for stopping the fight in the first, but thankfully Lavigne didn’t do that and we were treated to one of the best fights of the year.
FightMetric scored the total number of strikes in the first round 47 for Maynard and 10 for Edgar but the total at the end of the fight showed anything but a one sided affair. By the end of the fight the total number of strikes thrown were 93 for Maynard and 97 for Edgar. Significant strikes totaled 71 Maynard and 95 Edgar.
Maynard landed the majority of his strikes in the first while Edgar was able to come back and win the later rounds to force the draw. Each fighter scored a total of three takedowns each, but it was Edgar’s ability to stuff Maynard’s attack that helped to make the difference by stopping 17 of 20 attempts, while Maynard stopped 10 of 13.
It’s not to say that Maynard wasn’t deserving of the victory, as there are many points one can argue that would see him with the title, but he was just outshone Saturday night by Edgar.
Edgar didn’t win but he did walk away with the belt and a ton of respect from the MMA community as a whole.
The hype that will now build up to Edgar vs. Maynard III will be monumental and will have fans anxiously awaiting a fight date announcement.
For Maynard it will offer him another chance to take the title, maybe one he should have won but failed to finish when he had the opportunity.
And for Edgar, it will offer him another chance to showcase himself as one of the top lightweights in the world as he faces another opponent again in back-to-back fights.