On Nov. 12, the UFC will be hosting their first UFC on FOX event.The show will be an hour-long special with UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez defending his title against Junior dos Santos in the only main card fight of the night. The UFC com…
On Nov. 12, the UFC will be hosting their first UFC on FOX event.
The show will be an hour-long special with UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez defending his title against Junior dos Santos in the only main card fight of the night.
The UFC coming to FOX is huge for the sport of MMA, as it is a major step in making the sport more mainstream.
For many current MMA fans, they already know what to expect from Dana White and the UFC.
For the newer fans of the sport, here are some things you may see at UFC on Fox.
The highly anticipated UFC Undisputed 3 video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is just a few shorts months away from being released. The video game will be headlined around UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who will be featured on the f…
The highly anticipated UFC Undisputed 3 video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is just a few shorts months away from being released.
The video game will be headlined around UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who will be featured on the front cover.
And, while the fans will have to wait until January 3, 2012 to play UFC Undisputed 3, they can now get a sneak peak of the lightweight roster, which was recently revealed by ESPN.com.
Surprisingly, this year’s lightweight roster does not include Joe Lauzon, Kenny Florian or Nate Diaz.
The lightweight roster consists of 16 fighters (listed below).
Donald Cerrone
Evan Dunham
Frankie Edgar
Takanori Gomi Clay Guida Melvin Guillard Benson Henderson Gray Maynard Jim Miller Ross Pearson B.J. Penn Anthony Pettis Sean Sherk Dennis Siver George Sotiropoulos Joe Stevenson
Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, RankingsNow that Frankie Edgar has finally beaten Gray Maynard, it’s time to break up the bottleneck at the top of the lightweight division.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear that we’re actually close to see…
Now that Frankie Edgar has finally beaten Gray Maynard, it’s time to break up the bottleneck at the top of the lightweight division.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear that we’re actually close to seeing that happen.
In 2010, the only lightweight title fights were Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn, and in 2011, the only lightweight title fights have been Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard. Edgar will definitely fight someone new in 2012, but who? We’ll go over some of the options as we run through the list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA below.
Top 10 Lightweights in MMA (Editor’s Note: The fighter’s rankings the last time we ranked the lightweights are in parentheses.)
1. Frankie Edgar (1): UFC President Dana White says Edgar would be even better at featherweight than he is at lightweight, but I disagree. I think part of Edgar’s greatness is his speed and stamina, and both of those advantages over his lightweight opponents would be diminished if he were fighting against faster opponents at featherweight, and weakening himself the day before the fight by cutting an additional 10 pounds. I think Edgar is fighting right where he belongs.
2. Gilbert Melendez (3): The Strikeforce lightweight champion would have a good chance of beating Edgar, but he’s not going to get that chance just yet. Up next for Melendez is Jorge Masvidal in December.
3. Gray Maynard (2): Maynard will get a long layoff after getting knocked out by Edgar, but when that layoff ends I’d like to see him take on the loser of the upcoming fight between Clay Guida and Ben Henderson, assuming the winner of that fight gets the next crack at Edgar.
4. Clay Guida (4): If he beats Ben Henderson at the upcoming UFC on Fox event, he’d have to be considered the favorite to get the next crack at Edgar. Guida is on a four-fight winning streak and is one of the UFC’s most popular lightweights, and it would be hard for the UFC brass to turn down the possibility of a very entertaining Edgar-Guida title fight.
5. Anthony Pettis (5): Pettis is a lot of fun to watch, but I got the sense during his UFC 136 victory over Jeremy Stephens that he had decided to fight with a more cautious, deliberate style, perhaps burned by his last fight, a unanimous decision loss to Guida. What makes Pettis special is his unique, exciting style. I hope he doesn’t lose that.
6. Ben Henderson (6): After losing his WEC title to Pettis, Henderson has bounced back in a big way by beating Mark Bocek and Jim Miller in the UFC. If he beats Guida to move to 3-0 in 2011, he’d likely get a title shot in his first fight of 2012.
7. Shinya Aoki (7): Aoki likes to stay active, and he’s won six fights since his loss to Melendez a year and a half ago. The problem is that as long as he’s fighting in Dream, there aren’t many big fights available to him. A Top 10 lightweight should be fighting better opposition than Rob McCullough, whom Aoki beat at Dream.17.
8. Jim Miller (8): Miller had a title shot within his reach before he lost to Henderson. His 20-3 career record is impressive, but the three losses were to Edgar, Maynard and Henderson — the only three times he’s fought truly elite competition.
9. Eddie Alvarez (10): An injury forced Alvarez to delay his Bellator lightweight title fight with Michael Chandler until November 19. Alvarez is Bellator’s top fighter and biggest draw, and an inexperienced prospect like Chandler probably won’t give him much of a challenge. There’s talk of an Alvarez-Aoki rematch in Bellator in 2012, which could be the biggest non-UFC fight of the year.
10. Dennis Siver (NR): With Melvin Guillard dropping out of the Top 10, Siver moves back in. Siver will attempt to run his winning streak to five straight fights when he takes on Donald Cerrone at UFC 137.
Frankie Edgar is the current UFC lightweight champion, and is coming off a great win over rival Gray Maynard. He has jettisoned himself into the pound-for-pound rankings and now has successfully defended (including the retained draw) his title three ti…
Frankie Edgar is the current UFC lightweight champion, and is coming off a great win over rival Gray Maynard. He has jettisoned himself into the pound-for-pound rankings and now has successfully defended (including the retained draw) his title three times.
But now that he is still the champion, where does his career path lie?
This list is the top five guys for Frankie Edgar to face in the coming future. Most of the people mentioned have fights by the end of the year, and will help thin out who is worthy of the title shot, but for now, the 155 division is stacked. Now that Melvin Guillard is temporarily out the picture, here are the five that are waiting their turn.
Anthony “Showtime” Pettis closed out the WEC organization’s existence with a bang and a loud announcement: I’m a threat to anyone and I will end fights in a spectacular fashion. Since capturing the WEC lightweight championship at WEC 53 with the k…
Anthony “Showtime” Pettis closed out the WEC organization’s existence with a bang and a loud announcement: I’m a threat to anyone and I will end fights in a spectacular fashion.
Since capturing the WEC lightweight championship at WEC 53 with the kick heard around the world against Ben Henderson, Pettis stumbled into UFC competition.
Pettis was slated to be the No. 1 contender for the lightweight title that was supposed to be settled at UFC 125. In light of the draw that happened between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, a monkey wrench was thrown in Pettis’ plans.
Since those two were occupied in preparing for a rematch, Pettis elected to stay busy and fought Clay Guida at the Ultimate Fighter 13 finale. Guida dominated with his wrestling and ignored the submission attempts from Pettis en route to a unanimous decision victory.
No longer the No. 1 contender in a muddled lightweight division, Pettis has to fight his way back to the top. Jeremy Stephens stands in his way on Saturday night. In order for Pettis to get back into title contention, he probably needs two or three solid wins while the title picture clears up.
A win versus Stephens won’t put Pettis in a title fight, but it will put him up against one of the top-tier fighters to get himself back in the talk for a title fight. Perhaps he can be the introduction into the UFC for Gilbert Melendez? Who knows, but a win will do a lot for his title aspirations and his psyche.
Tonight at UFC on Versus 6, Dominick Cruz defended his UFC bantamweight title against Demetrious Johnson. Cruz proved tonight that sometimes having awkward and weird movements can work to your advantage. Cruz is not the only fighter who has h…
Tonight at UFC on Versus 6, Dominick Cruz defended his UFC bantamweight title against Demetrious Johnson.
Cruz proved tonight that sometimes having awkward and weird movements can work to your advantage.
Cruz is not the only fighter who has had some questionable movements in MMA.
Here’s a look at some of the other fighters who may make you wonder what exactly they’re doing.
The highly anticipated UFC Undisputed 3 video game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is just a few shorts months away from being released.
Now that Frankie Edgar has finally beaten