Following UFC 125, things don’t seem to sit right with lightweight contender Gray Maynard. Maynard went back and forth with UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar for five rounds, only for the bout to be declared a draw. The final decision didn’t go ov…
Following UFC 125, things don’t seem to sit right with lightweight contender Gray Maynard.
Maynard went back and forth with UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar for five rounds, only for the bout to be declared a draw. The final decision didn’t go over too well with fans or UFC president Dana White, which is why both competitors will headline UFC 130.
Originally, former WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis was slated to face the winner, but after a controversial decision, an immediate rematch was inevitable.
“I beat him two years ago and then it was a draw at UFC 125—this dude has never beaten me. How do I not get to fight him again?” Maynard said in an interview on MMA.Mirror.co.uk.
“I was hurt. Then I got a call from Dana and he was cool as hell. He was like ‘Hey, the fight’s yours.’ I was like ‘Man! Thank you.’”
Maynard went into his title bout against Edgar riding a seven-fight winning streak, holding victories over Nate Diaz, Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian. Maynard already holds a victory over Edgar, and since thier highly contested bout left a bitter taste in his mouth, Maynard is focused on defeating his opponent.
“He’s my whole life now. I wake up and he’s on my mind. I go to sleep and he’s on my mind. I just want to beat him.”
UFC 130 is scheduled for May 28, live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
April 2, 2008, UFC Fight Night: Florian vs Lauzon, we saw Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard fight. In that fight Gray dominated Frankie with his wrestling and took a unanimous decision victory.After that bout Frankie won three in a row including two of tho…
April 2, 2008, UFC Fight Night: Florian vs Lauzon, we saw Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard fight. In that fight Gray dominated Frankie with his wrestling and took a unanimous decision victory.
After that bout Frankie won three in a row including two of those being fight of the night performances and earned a shot to face BJ Penn at UFC 112. Frankie won a very debatable decision and became the new UFC Lightweight Champion and four months later defended it in a rematch with BJ and won a 50-45 unanimous decision.
That win lined up the rematch with Gray Maynard and it took place at UFC 125.
Gray on the other hand after the Edgar fight had to win five fights in a row and earned the number one contender ship by defeating Kenny Florian at UFC 118. Gray is a grinder and all of his bouts after the first Edgar fight went to decision.
He was inconsistent throughout this period, he never lost but had a couple of close decisions. During the streak he kept saying he deserved his title shot and finally after his dominating performance against Florian he was granted his wish, and on New Years Day 2011 it all took place.
The lead up to the second fight was interesting, not much smack talk only respect and confidence on both ends. You could truly see the hunger in the two fighters eyes in interviews and pre-fight press conferences. Many, and I mean about 90 percent of people expected this to be a wrestling match and not be very interesting. Oh, how many were surprised.
Round 1 was interesting. Maynard caught Frankie with a solid shot and that led to one of the most lopsided rounds in UFC history that was not stopped and it is good that it wasn’t stopped because what happened after that 10-8 arguably 10-7 round was just amazing.
Round 2 Frankie came out like an animal and looked like nothing had happened in the previous five minutes and showed his heart and dedication. Frankie landed a big take down and land three times the amount of strikes that Maynard did in that round.
Round 3 was a very close round with Edgar landing just a few more strikes than Maynard, but the two take downs that Maynard landed stole the round for him. At this point Frankie seemed fine and ready to go, but you could clearly tell that Maynard was getting very tired and had punched himself out in the first round.
Round 4 was all Edgar while Round 5 was very close. In the fifth Edgar only landed a couple more shots than Maynard, but Maynard failed on seven take down attempts. The final round was very close but Frankie clearly won that round.
After all was said and done many were curious on how the fight would be scored, but besides that everyone had witnessed one of the greatest title fights in UFC history. The fighters paced around, both thought that they had won this fight and both had a legit claim.
Judge Marcos Rosales scored the bout 48-46 for Edgar. Judge Glenn Trowbridge scored the bout 48-46 for Maynard. Then finally judge Patricia Morse-Jarman scored the bout 47-47, and the bout was declared a draw. You could see the disappointment on both fighters faces as Bruce Buffer made the call.
Post fight, Dana White showed praise for both fighters. The WEC merger had recently taken affect and WEC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis was supposed to face the winner, but with the amazing fight and the draw Dana went against the call and announced that we would see a third fight between Edgar and Maynard.
What to expect in this fight? Many things. Both men really want to be the sole owner of this belt. They will do whatever it takes to get the belt as well. Who will go for the early take downs, who will have the superior striking?
We all know what to expect, but how much will each truly change things up in this fight? Edgar must utilize his speed and counter punching. Maynard is more of a power puncher, but one solid shot can take you out of your element.
The wrestling in the fight will be very interesting. Edgar looked tons better that Maynard in the take down department in the last fight, due to his speed and if he fights to his strength he could and should beat Maynard.
These two warriors were made for each other in the octagon, and this fight will not be a test of skill. This fight will be a test of heart and desire. Odds are this fight will go to decision, but should be very entertaining as well.
What happens to the loser of the bout? Would Frankie drop to 145-lbs and try and challenge Jose Aldo? Would Gray add weight and test Welterweight waters? Gray has been known to walk at over 180-lbs when not fighting, so there are weird scenarios like that.
Odds are if the fight isn’t close or controversial the loser will fight a top 4-5 guy and with one or two wins will be back in the title picture, but this is MMA anything is possible.
Be sure to check out UFC 130 on May 28, 2011 live on pay per view.
Fight fans love us some good black eyes, but not like this. Every sport suffers their low moments that they wish might not ever have happened, and MMA is no different.Sure, we can try and pretend like they never happened, or we could do the noble…
Fight fans love us some good black eyes, but not like this.
Every sport suffers their low moments that they wish might not ever have happened, and MMA is no different.
Sure, we can try and pretend like they never happened, or we could do the noble thing and try and learn from them.
A black eye on the sport never looks good, but it can only add character over time.
Some moments are simply more embarrassing than anything else, while others are just downright nasty.
Ken Shamrock spoke Fight Network Radio recently and stated that he believes that if the UFC would look past their personal and legal issues and give him a rubbermatch with Royce Gracie at UFC Rio in August, they will sell out and set pay-per-view records much like his pair of fights with Tito Ortiz did.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/TheFightNetwork)
Ken Shamrock spoke Fight Network Radio recently and stated that he believes that if the UFC would look past their personal and legal issues and give him a rubbermatch with Royce Gracie at UFC Rio in August, they will sell out and set pay-per-view records much like his pair of fights with Tito Ortiz did.
“There’s no doubt in my mind, and anyone else will tell you that if this fight was to happen, this would be the biggest pay-per-view to date, but they will not let that happen. [The UFC] would have to swallow their egos for that to happen and these guys have too big of egos to let that happen,” he said. “I love to fight. I want to fight. I think staying within my capabilities of fighting people who were from my time…Trying to fight these young kids, obviously I’m a bit too old for that, but if I stay within my realm of things I think fans would enjoy it, I would enjoy it and I think it’s good for the sport.”
Although his chances of talking Dana White and company into signing the old school bout are slim-to-none, especially when Shamrock brings up that it likely won’t happen due to the UFC president’s huge ego. Still Ken is holding out hope that money talks.
“That fight, Royce Gracie-Ken Shamrock should happen. The fans want it, I want it, Royce wants it,Brazil wants it. The only problem with that is you have a bunch of people who have big egos who believe that the UFC created this whole thing when they absolutely did not,” he explained. “People like myself and Royce Gracie and [Mark] Coleman and many, many other people created this UFC phenomenon so’s that they can sit there and control it which is what they’re doing today, trying to control it for themselves. So they’re not gonna let that fight happen.”
For those who are unfamiliar with the sport of mixed martial arts or the UFC, fans will no longer feel left out, as UFC.com has recently launched an in-depth, interactive page where anyone can browse and become educated in MMA. It is called “UFC D…
For those who are unfamiliar with the sport of mixed martial arts or the UFC, fans will no longer feel left out, as UFC.com has recently launched an in-depth, interactive page where anyone can browse and become educated in MMA. It is called “UFC Discover.”
The page is categorized into four sections: Discover the Fighter, Discover the Sport, Discover The UFC and Discover the Fan. Each section features artifacts, information and content all in detail regarding your favourite events, fighters and signature moves.
Obviously, this a great opportunity for fans to learn more about the sport and participate in such an interactive way. More so, it is an even greater opportunity for the UFC to allow itself to become more involved and open to the mainstream media.
While browsing through countless pages and sections, the interactive page allows fans to become more aware and knowledgeable about the UFC and it’s regulations, thus creating a more healthier perspective on the sport entirely.
Now fans will have the chance to browse onto UFC.com in a new, interactive way and allow them to truly discover the UFC as a sport, a brand and a culture.
Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the UFC bought Strikeforce and UFC president Dana White has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t care for Johnson’s fight calling abilities and as such it seemed unlikely that GuJo would be included in their vision of business as usual .
(Sometimes purple lipstick happens in MMA commentating.)
Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that the UFC bought Strikeforce and UFC president Dana White has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t care for Johnson’s fight calling abilities and as such it seemed unlikely that GuJo would be included in their vision of business as usual .
Maybe this is a sign that CBS may be revisiting its relationship with Strikeforce under the new Zuffa regime, or maybe its nothing one has noting to do with the other, but at least there’s hope now that the lipstick-sporting, reporter-calling, Renzo Gracie blue belt has left the network, that if they can come to terms, we won’t ever have to hear Gus proclaiming things like Seth Petruzelli beating Kimbo Slice is the greatest upset in MMA history on network television.
Johnson’s last gig with the network will be his calling of the Showtime pay-per-view broadcast of the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley bout, but after that fans may never see his make-up aden mug during another MMA broadcast.
Following UFC 125, things don’t seem to sit right with lightweight contender Gray Maynard.