The UFC began the New Year with the beginning of a new era for its 155Ibs division, with Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard leading the division out of the long shadow cast by BJ Penn. Maynard would get off to a dream start, tearing into Edgar with a reckless abandon and devastating power that belied his long run of relatively dry decision victories. The underdog champion impressively regained his composure and footing while Maynard lost both his conditioning and discipline, tiredly and recklessly headhunting in the second round. It would be Maynard’s turn to regain his bearings and regroup, with the two fighters winning the Las Vegas crowd over with dramatic, even exchanges as both sort to gain the telling advantage over the next three rounds.
As the final bell went, it was clear that both fighters had become significantly greater figures than they were when they entered the Octagon thirty minutes earlier. But no one could know for certain who would leave UFC 125 as the UFC Lightweight Champion. The uncertainty was well-founded with the three ringside judges split threeways and the fight therefore being ruled a draw. The fact that most fans and journalists accepted the draw as the fair result shows just how exceptionally close the fight was.
While the draw was warranted it was certainly not welcome. The obvious next move in such circumstances would usually be to announce that the two fighters would meet in an instant rematch to break the tie. Unfortunately Zuffa already had big plans for the lightweight division, having announced a future unification match between the UFC Champion and the last-ever WEC Champion Anthony Pettis. They would have to choose between proceeding with the original plans or postponing Pettis’ title shot in favor of Edgar-Maynard III.
As Dana White would eventually admit, the decision should have been a no brainer. There was an unresolved issue between Edgar and Maynard that quite obviously required a rematch to determine who the better man was. As Edgar himself put it in the post-fight press conference, he needed ‘closure’ on his rivalry with Maynard before he could move onto new challenges. Additionally scheduling Edgar vs. Pettis first would obviously risk Edgar losing the title and so lessening the interest in Maynard getting his second title shot. Whereas it is irrelevant who Pettis faces for the title in the unification match, a big part of the appeal of any immediate Maynard title shot would be him squaring off against Edgar for a third and final (?) time. Uncharacteristically the UFC wobbled, first announcing that Edgar would next face Pettis only to quickly do a volte face and confirm that actually Edgar and Maynard would complete their trilogy first.
The decision was the undoubtedly the right one but it leaves yet more questions unresolved. The most obvious and pressing one being what Pettis’ next move will be. Unlike higher-profile and wealthier fighters such as Rashad Evans, Pettis is poorly positioned to retreat to the sidelines and wait for his promised title match. Not only would that risk squandering the momentum he built with his career best performance against Ben Henderson but it would involve him forgoing income for a prolonged period of time. A career spent receiving minuscule WEC payments would surely make Pettis quibble at the thought of going until the fall without fighting. One possible solution would be for him to defend his lightweight title against a fellow former WEC fighter, possibly Donald Cerrone, as a way to not only keep him busy but also to fully introduce him and the title to the UFC fans before the unification fight.
The bigger problem is what the fallout of Saturday night’s title fight means for the wider lightweight title scene. With Maynard getting an instant rematch and Pettis on some level promised the one after that the likes of Clay Guida, Jim Miller and George Sotiropoulos all face a frustrating year where a title shot is nothing but a distant dream. Some would be wise to take the opportunity to seek greater success at 145Ibs but for those who can’t or won’t make the move down they will be forced to spend running to stand still, hoping that when an opening emerges towards the end of the year that they are still in contention.
UFC 125 was billed as “Resolution” but its championship main event resolved little. The UFC is right to have Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard meet again to settle their score but they have to move carefully to ensure that the division doesn’t stagnate as fresh contenders are denied the chance to earn a shot at the championship.
[Reprinted from FoxSports with permission]
