Let the Debate Begin: Edgar/Maynard II

by Phil Clark on January 13, 2011

Anthony Pettis must now play the waiting game. Probably.

The first day of the new year brought 2011′s first bit of controversy into UFC’s octagon with the lightweight title fight between champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. The storyline was simple for this one: these two had demolished UFC’s lightweight division over the past year, Maynard is unbeaten, and Edgar’s only loss was to Maynard a while back. The draw that followed was the last result anybody wanted—from Joe Silva and Dana White to Edgar and Maynard to Anthony Pettis. But I’ll get to him later.

As for the fight itself, it was as compelling and exciting as those within UFC could’ve hoped. Back in August when both of these men won their respective fights in Boston, I did write that they could legitimately main-event a UFC pay-per-view, and the card could be a big success if there was enough of a card under it. Well, as has happened the last few end of the year/beginning of the new year cards, the injury bug reared its ugly head and the card that we ended up getting was a good card at best when it comes to the buys number. However, I’m still hopeful for the end result as this fight was hyped for a good amount of time and was one that I have been looking forward to since both made their presence known that August night in Boston.

I scored the fight for Edgar, 48-47. As for the draw and the judge scoring the fight for Maynard, I understand both.

The fight itself is prototypical of UFC title fights that are close and go the distance: the judging tends to get screwy. That can be the case even with only three-rounds to judge, but this is about Edgar/Maynard II, and this was a close fight that went the distance and was judged three different ways by three different people who were sitting cageside. The reason for the three different scores lies with the scoring of rounds one, three, and five.

Round one in particular deserves a look if only for me to put out the only question that could possibly come out of viewing that round: how in the hell did Gray Maynard not finish Frankie Edgar in the opening five minutes? I’ve watched that first round over a few times and there were at least three opportunities for Maynard to have put the finishing touches on things. However, the standing game is more Edgar’s thing and Maynard’s less than constant use of it in neutralizing his opponents put him in a position to turn into Shane Carwin and gas out after his first assault. In a sense this is what happened to Maynard during those first five minutes as he was the one to let Edgar out of the danger zone each time he had him there. It also allowed Edgar to move on rubber legs—something that was all too obvious—during the final ninety seconds of the round and survive.

I mentioned the possibility of Maynard gassing out in round one only because round two saw the beginning of the fight’s 180 degree turn. The second five minutes of this title fight saw Edgar systematically land right hand shots causing swelling below and around Maynard’s left eye. That was the round.

Round three and five come into play because those were the two rounds of this fight that could be viewed most as swing rounds on the judge’s cards. These were most competitive rounds of the fight and the only two where the winner of the round wasn’t obvious or where you had a real good hint of who won the round; this is possibly the biggest problem in judging American MMA. My card had Edgar getting round three and round five scored even as I felt neither man did anything to distinguish themselves in the final five minutes. In the round, each man blocked the others’ take-down attempts, both landed a few small punches and one big combination of punches, but neither did anything beyond that, and their rounds ended up mirroring each other when you look at the round as a whole and not just the final thirty seconds. Of course the odds of even one of the judges scoring the fifth round 10-10 are slim to none, so I think that made my point on screwy judging, even if it might have been me in this case.

What may have sealed Maynard’s fate is likely what almost won him the title: those first round bombardments. The key to Maynard’s first win against Edgar—and the key to a win this time—was to establish his dominance on the ground and try to wear down Edgar that way. While Maynard’s standing approach did the job in round one, it appeared to leave him gassed enough that his attempts for take-downs later didn’t seem to have much on them, and it only made Edgar’s climb to get back into the fight easier.

While I scored the fight for Edgar, I do believe that since the judges scored things to be a draw that they should get another fight. I understand the viewpoint that since the fight took place and there was no doctor stoppage or injury finish, that Pettis deserves to have his shot since Maynard had his and didn’t walk out with the title. And the fact that there wasn’t an injury or some stoppage from a cut or something of the sort should make it easier to decide what is right here, but what happened ended up being anything but conclusive. Remember, this wasn’t a majority draw, this was one judge scoring for one guy, one judge scoring for the other guy by the same amount, and one judge scoring things dead even. That’s about as down the middle as things can get as far as scoring a fight goes.

Anthony Pettis became known overnight by sending WEC off into the sunset with his Showtime Kick—a jumping roundhouse kick off of the cage—that, when landed against Ben Henderson back in December, likely was what won Pettis the WEC lightweight title and a shot at Edgar or Maynard to unify the belts. Dana’s announcement pretty quickly after the fight that the Edgar and Maynard would get another crack at each other means that unification will have to take a backseat until the late summer or the fall, something that leaves Pettis out in the cold.

Not only out in the cold, but in a bit of a dilemma: take the time off or fight again before Edgar and Maynard (hopefully) settle things. Either route is tempting, but both carry big risk along with them: taking the time off risks rust when you get back in the cage and it would likely be a total of nine months, if not more, since Pettis’ title win when he’ll be competing again. On the other hand, fighting again poses the risk of losing, even if it’s a decision loss. In this situation, one loss could potentially hand that guy a title shot and would then leave Pettis literally where he is right now. But right now, he’s at least got a future title fight to look forward to. Whatever Pettis decides to do, he appears to have plenty of time to think on it, and should.