After Gray Maynard (10-0) secured the top contender position by defeating Kenny Florian last month, UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar (13-1) only had to wait on a date for his second title defense.
Edgar will face Maynard on Jan. 1st, at UFC 125 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas according to sources close to the fight who spoke to MMAFighting.com.
Both men have fought once before back in April 2008 as part of UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Lauzon. Maynard earned a unanimous decision in the bout, the only loss of Edgar’s professional career.
Since that time, Edgar has won five straight, including back-to-back wins over BJ Penn. Edgar defeated Penn at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi in April of this year to win the UFC lightweight title and then went on to score another unanimous decision over “The Prodigy” in August at UFC 118.
Maynard, meanwhile, has kept his record undefeated since his first professional bout in 2006. He did suffer a TKO against Rob Emerson at the “TUF 5 Finale” but both fighters were TKO’d in the bout and it was called a “No Contest.” In the past year Maynard defeated Florian at UFC 118 and Nate Diaz via split decision at UFC Fight Night 20 in January.