After such a great performance at UFC 136, it is hard to believe that people are calling for UFC Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to drop down to featherweight.UFC President Dana White expressed concern over how much damage Edgar can absorb from bigg…
After such a great performance at UFC 136, it is hard to believe that people are calling for UFC Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to drop down to featherweight.
UFC President Dana White expressed concern over how much damage Edgar can absorb from bigger opponents—like Gray Maynard—and that constantly taking punishment is not healthy for the champion.
But he is not just taking a beating at 155, he is giving them too.
Edgar has no reason to change weight classes if he is taking out the elite of the lightweight division.
Nobody gave him a shot against former two time UFC champion BJ Penn and he proved his critics wrong, twice.
The current lightweight champion has a great advantage being a bit smaller than everyone else in the division.
Edgar has a clear speed advantage over the heavier lightweights, using his head movement, footwork, and quick combinations in tandem to get the better of his opponents. His lightning fast hands and feet are what got him the belt.
His fast striking also helps Edgar secure some amazing take downs. Edgar is one of the few people to put both Penn and Maynard on their backs.
Another advantage Edgar has being a smaller lightweight is that he does not have to suffer the rigors of cutting weight before a fight.
UFC commentator Mike Goldberg noted that Maynard walks at upwards of 200 lbs. between fights. Cutting any amount over 15 to 20 lbs is a grueling task that Edgar does not have to endure.
The competition within the division is also stacked, providing Edgar with constant challenges at lightweight.
Fighters like Ben Henderson, Clay Guida, and the rest of the UFC’s 155ers are still looking for their shot at the belt, not to mention that Strikeforce Lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez is vying for a UFC crown.
When the division is cleared out—a very tall order—then a superfight with UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo might make sense. However, a full-time move to 145 just seems impractical at this point for Edgar.
Once the champion is either dethroned or wipes the division clean, then a move to featherweight would make sense.
Chael Sonnen has not competed in UFC for 14 months, since his near-victory against Anderson Silva last August, but at UFC 136 it took him just 14 minutes to make his presence known as he made rising star Brian Stan…
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Chael Sonnen has not competed in UFC for 14 months, since his near-victory against Anderson Silva last August, but at UFC 136 it took him just 14 minutes to make his presence known as he made rising star Brian Stann tap out and then issued the challenge to end all challenges.
“Anderson Silva, you absolutely suck,” Sonnen said during the post-fight interview. “Super Bowl, weekend, the biggest weekend but we’re upping the stakes. I beat you, you leave the division. You beat me, I will leave the UFC forever.”
The only thing that Sonnen is known for more than his wrestling prowess inside the octagon is his ability to talk, and he did not disappoint in either area on Saturday night.
MMA purists hate professional wrestling style promos because they feel that it distracts from the sport, but if ever there was a money promo in this sport, this was it.
Fans and analysts were wondering what Sonnen had left after having so much time off. Not only did he make them look foolish, he set up arguably the biggest money fight in the history of the sport.
Sonnen and Silva are going to battle, and it sounds like it is going to happen in February, which is the best possible thing that could have happened to UFC.
Stann is a rising star and will have plenty of opportunities to fight for the middleweight championship, but the fight that the sport needed was Sonnen and Silva.
Of all the fights that UFC could possibly make, Sonnen and Silva will have the most mainstream anticipation because of the way their first bout went.
Sonnen is the only fighter in the last five years to give Silva a challenge. Add his ability to cut a promo on top of that, and you have the makings of a historic fight.
There are not a lot of true big money fights left that UFC can make, but the second bout between Sonnen and Silva is one of them.
And if you didn’t believe it before, you better after hearing Sonnen throw down the gauntlet.
In MMA there are winners and losers. Such is life when you’re not working with a net, not playing as part of a team. You go out there as one man, and there are no excuses for the outcome that don’t just come right back on you. It’s about your preparati…
In MMA there are winners and losers. Such is life when you’re not working with a net, not playing as part of a team. You go out there as one man, and there are no excuses for the outcome that don’t just come right back on you. It’s about your preparation, your abilities, and your output.
Some nights, you come out flat. That next gear isn’t there, you can’t get your head into the fight, or maybe you just run into a better man.
Regardless, every event has performances that range from forgettable to downright bad. Here are some of the worst from UFC 136.
Kenny Florian suffered a tough defeat at the hands of UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo at Saturday night’s UFC 136.Losing for the third time during a championship bout, speculation has arisen as to whether the long-time veteran of the Octagon will …
Kenny Florian suffered a tough defeat at the hands of UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo at Saturday night’s UFC 136.
Losing for the third time during a championship bout, speculation has arisen as to whether the long-time veteran of the Octagon will hang up the gloves after this latest defeat.
But with such an amazing history with the organization and only having UFC losses to champions or former top contenders, Florian can definitely still compete at a high level.
Whether it is at featherweight or another weight class altogether, Florian should keep fighting with the UFC.
Here are three reasons why not choosing to retire is a good idea for Kenny Florian.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
(If Jesse Ventura ever sees this, someone out there is going to get sued. / Props to MMAFighting.)
As a long time UFC fan, I’ve recently noticed that their marketing team has seemingly taken a break from using corny phrases to label their events. In fact, the last UFC pay-per-view to not be named after the fighters in the main event was back at UFC 125: Resolution, which featured the eventual draw between, you guessed it, Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. You just don’t see that kind of irony everyday.
UFC 136 was actually able to provide us with closure, however — more closure in fact than any card in quite a while. Not only did Edgar vindicate himself in triumphant fashion, but Jose Aldo proved to many of his critics that his gas tank is not an issue, Kenny Florian proved that he will never, ever, win a title fight, and Chael Sonnen proved that ring rust is for the weak. But now, we look to the future, and more importantly, try to predict it for the weekend’s big winners. So if you think our future match-ups are garbage, be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
Frankie Edgar: There weren’t many of us out there who picked Edgar to finish Maynard in such decisive fashion, let alone with strikes. But with his brilliant come from behind win, Edgar showcased yet another ever improving aspect of his game, and has emphatically earned his spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, though maybe not as high up as Dana would think. Though it seems Gilbert Melendez is destined for the next shot, we think the winner of the Ben Henderson/Clay Guida match deserves it just as much, if not more. Henderson presents many of the same challenges to Edgar as Maynard did, so it would be interesting to see if he would fare any better. And the thought of seeing Edgar and Guida bounce around like they had just tasted sugar for the first time is enough to give us an epileptic seizure.
Jose Aldo: I may be in the minority here, but I wasn’t exactly blown away by Aldo’s performance against “Kenflo” this past weekend. Yes, his takedown defense looked great, but let’s not forget that wrestling has never been Florian’s strong suit. Chad Mendes, on the other hand, has absolutely dominated past opponents with his wrestling, and his stand up is improving by the day. If he can get inside on Aldo, we could be seeing a very different kind of riddle for Aldo to solve. But outside of Mendes and a possible future rematch with Mark Hominick, there don’t seem to be many featherweight match-ups at the moment that spark a lot of interest. Lightweight however, is an entirely different story…
Chael Sonnen: You have to be one arrogant son of a bitch to think that you cannot only hand pick your future opponent’s, but pick the day on which you will fight them as well. Luckily, Chael Sonnen’s arrogance is beginning to take on it’s own persona, and it’s getting harder and harder to disagree with the guy. He dominated a game Brian Stann despite being away from the octagon for over a year, and he made it look easy. Dana White has admitted it would be foolish not to book this rematch, and for once we’re in agreement with “The Baldfather.” Some people are arguing for a Dan Henderson rematch, given he gets past Shogun, but considering that fight is being held at light heavyweight, we don’t really see why the winner would necessarily deserve it over Sonnen, especially since Shogun clearly has no middleweight aspirations. Book it Dana…book it and they will come.
Joe Lauzon: It took “J-Lau” less than a minute to end Melvin Guillard’s hopes of getting the next lightweight title shot and remind us of why he is one of the most dangerous guys in the division. Though his cardio has long been questionable, there’s no doubting the kid’s killer instinct, and it would be nice to see him put together a nice win streak for once. Giving him a crack at the winner of Siver/Cerrone or Dos Anjos/Tibau would really help thin the herd of potential contenders, and that is one thing the lightweight division could use. Another option, and perhaps the one with the biggest potential for fireworks, would be Nate Diaz. This is of course based on the assumption that Nate Diaz decides to hang out at lightweight for a while, and who knows with that guy.
Demian Maia: Maia’s victory over Jorge Santiago was about as typical as could be expected. It showcased his well known ability to control a fighter on the ground while highlighting the fact that his stand up still has a ways to go. Matching him up against someone like Alan Belcher would really let us know where exactly he stands in the middleweight division, but the grappling fanatic in me would really like to see how he’d fare against someone like Rousimar Palhares, who’s striking is quickly becoming as tenacious as his ground game.
Anthony Pettis: After being wrestlefucked by Clay Guida in his UFC debut, the final WEC lightweight champion seemed eager to prove that he is constantly improving upon his weaknesses with a takedown oriented victory over Jeremy Stephens. A fight against someone equally well rounded, like Jim Miller, would be a nice measuring stick for Pettis, as would a match against the resurgent Sam Stout. Or if we really wanted to see how far his wrestling is coming, we could wake Gray Maynard up and throw him in “Showtime’s” direction.
Oh, and can someone throw Jorge Santiago a fricken bone? The poor guy has had about the worst run of luck in the UFC that I can remember, and I’d really just love to see him pull off one of these again.
We’ll let you decide the loser’s fates in the comment section…choose wisely.
I feel like I’ve been here before. Such was my line of thought during the first round of Saturday night’s main event in Houston, where Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard contested the lightweight title for the second time in 2011. I had this th…
I feel like I’ve been here before.
Such was my line of thought during the first round of Saturday night’s main event in Houston, where Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard contested the lightweight title for the second time in 2011.
I had this thought because Maynard had just clubbed the champion with a thundering punch, and was following up with more punishment, as Edgar stumbled about the cage like a one-legged man rollerskating on marbles.
And in response to the beating, just as he had earlier this year, Edgar stabilized, fired back, and survived.
Then he went on and took the better part of three rounds from Maynard before stopping him violently in the fourth.
When that stoppage happened, I had another pause for thought:
Did a lesson from January actually cost Gray the title tonight?
You see, the argument in rematches is that you learn your opponent’s tendencies, study tape on him and adjust yourself. You realize where you went wrong as well, and fine-tune your game plan to improve your chances of success.
Going into the rematch with Edgar, there was a lot of talk about Gray gassing himself out trying to finish in the first round of their last fight.
That round, argued by many to be the most one-sided in MMA history for a man to actually survive, saw Maynard slug Edgar to a living death while expending tremendous energy himself.
This time, with Frankie teetering about the cage, Gray elected to play it cool and pick his spots. Unfortunately, he ran out of time in the round, and didn’t come close to doing the fullest amount of damage possible. Over the next few rounds, Edgar rebounded, and Gray still looked too slow—as he did last time.
The end result was two first rounds that were overwhelmingly in favour of Gray Maynard, both approached slightly differently, but both in title fights that saw Gray’s opponent walk away with the gold.
One has to wonder if Maynard’s evolution, his learning from pushing too hard the last time and trying to adjust, may have cost him the title.
What if he put it on Frankie like he did last time? Would he have gotten the finish? Would he be champion today?
There’s no way to know, but you can rest assured that such thoughts will fill Gray Maynard’s head while he tries to climb the lightweight ladder once again. And woe be unto the next guy that he has in trouble, because you can expect him to finish with a fury the likes of which few men can withstand.
I feel like I’ve been here before.