For his entire career in mixed martial arts it seems as though Frankie Edgar has been overlooked.
People didn’t think he deserved a lightweight title shot against BJ Penn. He got that shot anyway and won.
People thought it was a fluke, and he had to fight Penn again. He did, and he beat him even worse.
People said Gray Maynard had already beaten him, so he should fight him again. He did. Twice. Maynard couldn’t take the title from him, and his final seconds against Edgar saw him face down on the canvas eating punches and waiting to be saved by an official.
After all that, people finally started to say “hey, this Frankie Edgar is pretty good.”
At the front of the line was UFC president Dana White, anxious to make a few bucks off his scrappy champion by proclaiming him to be a real-life Rocky and one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
While you’d sometimes be wise to take White’s bold claims with a grain of salt, this was one that held some merit. Here was a guy who fought in the toughest division in the sport without cutting more than a few pounds, and got to the top against all odds.
People wanted him to lose; he won. People thought he couldn’t beat a legend; he did. People said he’d never overcome his nemesis; it happened.
Edgar was an undersized guy with a heart most of us only dream of, a fighter who an opponent would have to kill in order to beat him, and he held the hardest gold to keep in the UFC for almost two years. He defined the concept of pound-for-pound, because he got by against bigger, stronger opposition based solely on technique.
Good boxing. Good wrestling. Slick footwork.
He took physical gifts, perhaps aside from his speed, almost entirely out of the equation and managed to be the best in the world at his weight class.
Now, he no longer has a title. What does this change for him when it comes time to talk pound-for-pound rankings?
Truthfully, the answer should be nothing. Edgar is still the best in the world when it comes to besting bigger, scarier opponents that he really has no business beating.
That’s the core concept behind pound-for-pound: if you could make all things equal physically, who would be the best fighter in the world?
The answer to that is Anderson Silva, most likely, with Georges St-Pierre not that far behind. Then, belt or not, it’s hard to argue that Edgar doesn’t belong on their heels. Even in the loss that cost him that belt, it was razor thin and he lost to an enormous lightweight who got by on power and bulk for most of the fight.
People won’t agree with this, mostly because Edgar’s style isn’t for everyone. His picking and pawing frustrates a lot of fans, and if it wasn’t for his tremendous showings against Maynard many would be completely turned off by him.
However the fact remains that he’s still one of the best mixed martial artists in the world fighting in the toughest division in the sport, and he’s doing it at an epic size disadvantage.
Lightweight title be damned, if that’s not pound-for-pound greatness then nothing is.
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