This is the third consecutive fight for Frankie Edgar in which the judges leave me scratching my head. It’s a scary world for a MMA judge today, so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I’m done. No more saying things like maybe Benson Henderson stole the first fight at the end of the fifth round, and maybe Edgar didn’t win four of the five rounds in the rematch. No dammit!
Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo were at war with one another for five rounds, and it was an extremely close fight. The person who called this fight the best was Joe Rogan. Like him, I agree that Aldo won the first two rounds and Edgar won the last two, so the third round would determine the winner for a 48-47 decision. Personally, I feel Edgar took round three by getting the better of Aldo in the second half of the round.
I don’t know how anyone couldn’t possible fathom Edgar winning the third round seeing that those same people most likely claim that Michael Bisping did the same to Chael Sonnen in the first round of their fight, and therefore should’ve been awarded the victory. Yet based on that logic, Edgar being more aggressive, and landing more significant strikes than Bisping did on Sonnen, doesn‘t entitle him at least the same scoring? It seemed pretty clear that Aldo was slowing down and was eating more leg kicks than he was dishing out. Based on the number of strikes landed, aggression and overall pressure of Edgar, I don’t see how not one single judge scored round three for him.
Now let’s say that for whatever reason you think the front kick that scored for Aldo was enough to win him the third round. Okay, then how do you not at least have a unanimous score of 48-47? How in the world did two of three judges scored it 49-46? A high school wrestler could’ve scored that fight better, and those two judges might as well have been in Aldo’s corner.
I’m sure there are those who agree that Edgar could just as easily gotten the decision, it’s just a damn shame that those same individuals aren’t judging these fights for what they really are, and instead are throwing ridiculous scores out there.
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli
@FightFreek