UFC 125 Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard January 1st, 2011 from Las Vegas, Nevada
I know this post is so late but with the big move and getting stuff ready for school I got a little side tracked. And since its so long after the fights I don't remember them all and can't find them online to rewatch. Sorry in advance but here it is, my review for 125, another night of great fights. I was pretty disappointed when I heard the featherweight title fight and Shane Carwin were taken off the card but there were a lot of other amazing fights. Plus I was way better with my picks this time, only one of the guys I was really cheering for didn't pull it off, but that was a weird fight in general.
Josh Grispi vs. Dustin Poirier - featherweight
Grispi was supposed to fight the current featherweight title holder, Jose Aldo but when Aldo was taken off the card because of an injury Poirier would be his opponent. I didn't see this fight but I find it pretty interesting that the guy that was supposed to be number one contender for the belt lost. I suppose when Aldo is healed up and ready to go Poirier will be in line for the title shot.
Clay Guida vs. Takanori Gomi - lightweight
GUIDA! The caveman back in action. He legitimately looked like he was on something. He wasn't just jumping around like he usually does, his head was going crazy. All Gomi had to do was time in right and with the speed that Guida was moving his head and the power Gomi has in his punches it could have been a devastating knockout. Guida got a takedown near the end of the first round then started the second getting rocked pretty hard. But he landed another takedown and grabbed the submission win. This fight also won Guida a nice little submission of the night bonus.
Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim - welterweight
Disappointing, Kim wins by unanimous decision. One annoying thing I definitely remember about the fight was the illegal knee. Kim was bent over without his hand on the mat and just as Diaz was throwing a knee right to his face he barely put his hand to the ground, making the move illegal.They replayed it and it was so close, the force of Diaz's knee definitely lifted Kim up but personally I don't think his hand was on the mat before that happened. He got booed for it anyway so it's all fair. After the fight he called out GSP, really? In the post fight presser his response to the callout being questioned is "I can take him down". He's another guy that says all GSP does it take people down, he can do that too. Not cool Kim, I don't think he's close to a title shot so calling out someone that high up is a little far fetched.
Brian Stann vs. Chris Leben - middleweight
Stann is such a humble fighter, he said one of the keys to the fight was Leben even taking it. He didn't have to, Leben is very well known in the UFC and Stann definitely is not. He will be known now and would like to take on Wanderlei Silva next. He totally dominated Leben and finished the fight by TKO before the end of the first round. Stann teaches a martial arts class to veterans with post traumatic stress disorder, to help deal with the anxiety and anger that they have. This guy is way cool, I'm definitely excited I was pulling for him and will continue to in the future. If you don't like this guy I think you're nuts, he is very well spoken AND a great fighter.
Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera
This was one of the worst broken noses I have ever seen! Vera was even showing it off from every angle for the camera after the fight, it was flat against his face and totally off to the side, so weird! Vera seemed to loose a lot of his power, in the third round especially he was barely fighting back, he's usually really aggressive. Not surprisingly Silva took the unanimous decision with one judge even scoring one round 10-8.
Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard - lightweight Championship DRAW
This was a devastating fight. For both fighters. Because of the draw Edgar maintains champ status and keeps his belt. The fight could have been over in the first round. Maynard dropped Edgar, like 5 or 6 times, and didn't let Edgar land really anything. Stann mentioned in the post fight press conference that the ref that will be refing each specific fight goes into the dressing room of each fighter and talks to them. There they have the opportunity to tell the ref, please don't stop the fight early, give me warnings, let me work. I'm not sure if maybe the ref didn't stop this fight because it was a title match.
The judges scored is 48-46 Edgar, 48-46 Maynard and 47-47 naming it a complete draw! What the heck. When this fight was over I was saying to the people I was watching with I thought Maynard had it but I didn't think they would give it to him because he didn't BEAT the champ, he just won the fight. Maynard knew he won the first round, it was definitely a 10-8 round, some may say 10-7 but I don't think I have ever seen that. He also thought he had the 3rd and 5th rounds won. He threw 97 punches in the first round, I'd like to know how many of those landed. Between rounds, I believe after the second, Maynard's corner was trying to tell him to stop trying to knock out Edgar. Its clear that was his gameplan, he wanted a devastating win, he probably should have been going for the submission in the first round after continuously knocking edgar down.
After the fight they showed Edgar in his dressing room and he was almost in tears. He doesn't see his record as 13 and 1, he sees 13 and Maynard. Now its 13 Maynard and Maynard. In the post fight press conference Dana White was not there so another guy, Craig Borsari, senior vice president of production and operations was there in his place. When asked what would happen with the lightweight division as Pettis, the WEC lightweight title holder was given the next shot at who ever won this match up, he said Pettis was given the next shot and will have it. Not long after Dana White announced that there would absolutely be a rematch. This fight is fight of the night and Dana has also announced that both fighters will get the win bonus for the draw.
I'm definitely going to watch this fight again when I can. I didn't really notice it until someone I was with pointed it out but Joe Rogan can be really one-sided with his announcing. Not all the time but in this fight, every time Edgar threw a punch that landed you could hear the OOOH form Rogan but when Maynard would counter...nothing. Goldberg stepped in a couple times with quick comments but jeeze. If you don't usually watch fights and are counting on the announcers to let you know whats going on, this was not the fight to watch. In Rogan's eyes it seems like Edgar won every second of every round, I don't agree at all. Something similar happened when Rua took the title from Machida, the first time they fought he didn't totally annihilate the champ so he didn't get the belt. When they had the rematch he went in and TKO'd Machida in the first round. I'm hoping Maynard an pull off a win like that.
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