During Monday’s media call, UFC President Dana White announced that the upcoming title re-match between UFC lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard was being pulled from the upcoming, May 28, UFC 130 card due to injuries to both fighters.
So the entire UFC lightweight division must wait once again for this title rematch to play itself out.
Originally, WEC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis was to have met the winner of the first title bout between Edgar vs. Maynard which took place on Jan. 1 at UFC 125, in a WEC-UFC title unification bout. With both men fighting to a draw, the UFC rebooked both men for UFC 130 and Pettis took a fight against Clay Guida rather than waiting.
During the media call UFC President Dana White said he expected both fighters to be out for about six to eight weeks, with their title rematch taking place sometime in August or September.
While its good to see that fans won’t miss out on an exciting rematch between Edgar vs. Maynard, it extends the length of time fans have to wait to see some new blood fight for the title. The UFC lightweight division is already very tough with fighters being cut after just one loss, delaying the progression of the top fighters only makes things more frustrating for fans and fighters at 155 pounds.
That isn’t to say that the UFC isn’t aware of the situation, and even tried to rectify it by asking Pettis if he’d fight Maynard in the main event of UFC 130. Edgar was the first to turn up injured, so for several days Pettis thought he’d be meeting Maynard but those expectations were short lived as “The Bully” would turn up injured just days later.
“They were going to have me fight Maynard on that card. I said yes to that deal right away. I guess it turns out that it’s not going to happen. I’m back to fighting Guida,” Pettis told HeavyMMA.com. “It sucks that he got injured, because it kinda puts the whole lightweight division back on standstill. ”
This will have put the UFC lightweight title on hold for eight to nine months before a champion is crowned. Now the issue coming out of this title rematch are any injuries suffered by the champion. A serious injuries could potentially keep the title out of reach for a year or more.
UFC heavyweight champ Can Velasquez is a perfect example, having undergone shoulder surgery after his title win over Brock Lesnar. It will be a year before he steps back into the Octagon to meet the winner of Lesnar vs. Junior dos Santos.
One possible solution to keep fighters, and fans happy, might be to offer fighters held up by the title backlog, would be to offer them a shot at the Strikeforce title and its champion Gilbert Melendez. The issue over the UFC title certainly serves as ammunition to back the cross-over of fighters between the promotions.
It might also serve as another reason for keeping the Strikeforce promotion alive, keeping championship bouts open for issues just like this one.