Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard Fight To A Draw In A Classic

After what most fans and all three judges would call a 10-8 drubbing in the first, Edgar responded by taking 3 or all of the final 4 rounds depending on who you ask. One judge had the fight 48-46 for Edgar. One judge had the fight 48-46 for Maynard and one judge had the fight even at 47-47. It was really the perfect decision. The fight looked and felt like a draw. Edgar and Maynard put on an exciting 5 round fight and fans should be salivating at the idea of these guys doing it again.

Edgar again showed his legitimacy after most fans and commentators vocally doubted him twice against BJ Penn. Edgar looked like a killer and didn’t bore and blanket Edgar like most people feared. In fact, Edgar out-wrestled Maynard throughout the parts of the fight where he was awake. While this may not hold up as the best fight of 2011 (Only 364 days and 100 or so events to outdo it.) it may well be the most surprising. Classic slugfest is not what anyone expected.

Three fighters were devestated by the draw. Edgar held onto his title, but was unable to extract revenge against the one man who beat him in the past. Maynard had seemingly blown his chance to win the belt he felt he deserved. Especially, looking back at how close he was to winning the fight in the first. The third man was Anthony Pettis who saw his title shot disappear as the two top UFC lightweights engage in a fight that rivaled his own title fight against Ben Henderson just a few weeks ago. Make no mistake, Edgar, Maynard and Pettis should be the only three people disappointed by this fight.

No matter what happened next, someone was going to get screwed. Dana White told Ariel Helwani (video below via MMA Fighting) that after hours of deliberation, Maynard would in fact get the rematch. What happens to Pettis now? We’ll see. Will he sit on the sidelines until late 2010 waiting for his rightful title shot like Rashad Evans or will he fight another top contender?

If this were the heavyweight title both Edgar and Pettis would be injured in training around February and Maynard would end up fighting someone like Clay Guida for an interim belt. Jersey Shore, the heavyweight title picture makes me sad.

Edgar now has a 0-1-1 record against Maynard. If he defeats Maynard in rematch 2.0 that puts them both at 1-1-1 which is incredibly rare in a fight trilogy. If/when (prediction!?) Edgar puts Maynard away in their next fight, I’ll go into the necessity of a 4th fight and why Edgar needs to finally fight Pettis first. We’ll wait to dive into that though. For now, enjoy the fact that Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard gave us the fight we were all too scared to hope for.