Frankie Edgar once again showed his heart last night, defeating Gray Maynard after losing the 1st round 10-8. Edgar came back to win rounds 2 and 3, and finish the undefeated Maynard in round 4. This clears the logjam a little at lightweight, freeing Edgar to fight someone else- he fought BJ Penn twice in 2010, and fought Maynard twice in 2011.
With Gilbert Melendez on the way to the UFC, it’s time for a champion vs champion match. Melendez has looked great against competition like Josh Thomson, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, etc. He’s top 5 and probably top 3 in the division. He is incredibly well-rounded, and presents an interesting style matchup for Edgar. With Maynard and Melvin Guillard definitively losing last night, Anthony Pettis winning a split decision, and Jim Miller coming off a loss, the choices for Edgar’s next challenger are Melendez, Ben Henderson, or Clay Guida.
The winner of Henderson-Guida was considered to be the #1 contenders match while Edgar-Maynard sorted itself out. Clearly, the winner of this fight would still be at the front of the line, but if Nick Diaz got an immediate title shot, El Nino is equally deserving. Finally, let’s not forget that the Edgar-Maynard trilogy is at 1-1-1. If both fighters are continuing to show improvement, at some point there needs to be a 4th fight.
Dana White needs to book the rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen. The Sonnen fight is Anderson’s only low mark of his UFC career, and Sonnen was his usual self on the mic after beating Brian Stann last night. No one expected Silva-Sonnen I to be anything special until Chael talked a lot of trash and got people interested (he proceeded to back it up which has people interested in a rematch). The fight is considered to be one of the best in UFC history, and given that Anderson has cleaned out the middleweight division, this is the fight to make. Sonnen showed no sign of ring rust, and actually submitted Stann. If his ground offence and defence has gotten better, he has a pretty reasonable chance of beating Anderson Silva.
