This weekend, UFC lightweight kingpin Frankie Edgar will defend his strap against former WEC lightweight titleholder Ben Henderson. Edgar will have his hands full with Henderson in Japan in a fight that could go either way. However, regardless of the outcome Saturday night, Edgar has proven himself to be a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter, as he has fought the cream of the crop and has steadily improved with each and every fight. Win or lose, his next opponent should be of the same caliber.
The fight that everyone wants to see would be a scrap with current featherweight champ Jose Aldo.
Let’s face it, Edgar is a glorified featherweight fighting currently above his optimum weight and he is still dominating his foes. How long that continues to last will be determined Saturday night. Whether at 145, 155 or a 150 catch weight, Aldo-Edgar makes a ton of sense and would be guaranteed fireworks. Stylistically, the matchup is captivating, and it would be the biggest fight in the history of the lighter weight divisions.
It would be interesting to see if the power wrestling and speed of Edgar could force Aldo to the mat, wear him out and pound on him. Aldo has shown that he can stifle the wrestling of top grapplers like Chad Mendes and Urijah Faber with brutal leg kicks and a quick sprawl, but neither compare to Edgar—he took down BJ and guys roughly 20 pounds heavier than him for crying out loud.
Once on the ground, Aldo would undoubtedly have trouble dealing with the top game of Edgar. We all saw what Mark Hominick did to Aldo—albeit through exhaustion—on the ground in Toronto; imagine what Edgar could do.
If Aldo is to stuff the takedowns, we could see if Edgar’s speed advantage is the same against someone his own size. Edgar has been able to out-box nearly everyone in the lightweight division using exceptional movement and crisp counters and combos. However, Aldo is arguably just as fast and his brutal leg kicks could slow Edgar down to a crawl. Furthermore, Aldo’s power is downright scary—for those who need reassurance, look at the knockouts of Manny Gamburian and Cub Swanson. Would Edgar be able to withstand that? Edgar has been rocked on numerous occasions by fighters not as gifted as Jose. Could he take it on the jaw and keep moving? Could he survive much like he did vs. Maynard in both fights?
Wow, this fight is still but a fantasy, yet just talking about it has made the hair on my arm stand up.
Fans clamor for these types of super fights—where two top fighters from different weight classes meet—all the time and very rarely do they ever come to fruition. Only a few come to mind: St-Pierre-Penn 2, Silva-Griffin, Hughes-Gracie and Fedor-Henderson, and only one had title implications.
Edgar-Aldo is the perfect matchup because both fighters could easily be the champ or top contender in either division; if you think otherwise, you are kidding yourself. And both are in their prime. Two of the aforementioned fights had fighters well past their prime and it made for less than stellar fights.
This fight fills a huge void in the mega-fight discussion as the UFC is all but guaranteed to miss out on a proposed mega-fight between the two top pound-for-pound fighters in Silva and GSP. While this fight is not on the same level as a GSP-Spider matchup, it still would bring in millions of dollars in revenue for the UFC while also bringing a ton of attention to the often overshadowed lighter weight classes.
While the UFC lightweight division and featherweight division might be filled with great young talent, the UFC needs this fight—especially with UFC president Dana White refusing to bring consensus No. 2 lightweight Gilbert Melendez over from Strikeforce to challenge for the UFC strap. The lighter divisions need a showcase fight and this is about the biggest showcase fight the UFC could put on. Dana has said on numerous occasions that he makes fights the people want to see. Well, fans are clamoring for this one, not to mention the fighters have already expressed interest in a possible fight…Make it happen!
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