UFC 125 Parting Shots

Well, just one day into the year, we got a strong candidate for fight of the year with one of the better five-round title fights in MMA history between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. The best fights tell a good story, and this one featured Edgar on the receiving end of one of the most dominant rounds you’re likely to see that don’t end with a submission or knockout, yet Edgar bounced back to secure a draw that allowed him to keep his title. Here are my thoughts on that fight and the other bouts of UFC 125.

A draw was the right call

I was right on board with the official decision, as I gave Maynard the first and third round, with the first being a 10-8, of course. I thought Edgar clearly won the second and fourth, and the fifth was extremely close, but I gave it to Edgar, too.

Edgar was undoubtedly disappointed, but should he be? At the end of the day it’s still a successful title defense, and though he’ll likely face Maynard again immediately, after a first round like that it’s a pretty good outcome. Maynard, on the other hand, has to feel like he let one get away. It’s hard to say that he should have done anything different in the first round, but some more immediacy in the second, fourth, or especially fifth rounds would have served him well.

The fifth round was strange because you’d think both fighters would know that it was a key round, yet both seemed very cautious. Perhaps neither wanted to make a mistake, but at some point you have to go for broke a little bit, because isn’t losing a round clearly at least a better feeling than knowing you could have done more but didn’t try to?

Edgar fans may not agree, but this bout is another reason to consider a scoring system that uses half-points: The fifth round for sure was too close to be rendered anything but a 10-9.5 round under that system, and with a possibility of 10-9.5, 10-9, 10-8.5 or 10-8 rounds, you have a lessened chance of having a draw, especially over a period of five rounds. The reason that I say that Edgar fans may not agree is that he probably loses the fight under such a scoring system, but at least then we have a winner.

How should we feel about Silva’s performance?

Thiago Silva was obviously successful against Brandon Vera, and even won a few fans with his Couture-esque clowning of Vera near the end of their fight. For a lot of the fight, Silva seemed his normal self, especially when it comes to his demeanor: Silva even made his tough guy face and talked some trash at the conclusion of round one, for instance.

Where was the ferocity, though? Remember, this is the same guy that openly mocked Rashad Evans for fighting a safe fight and taking him down time and time again rather than standing and trading blows. Did anyone else notice that Silva essentially fought the exact same fight against Vera? Vera was more than game to stand and exchange, especially to begin round two, but Silva apparently decided that he wanted no part of that and took Vera down, instead.

Then, in the third round Silva made faces and playfully played the drums on Vera’s back while shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “what should I do?” from the dominant position he had. Again, is this the same guy that clowned Evans for playing it too safe? I laughed along with everyone else, but I’m always a bit annoyed with fighters shrug because they don’t know what to do or their opponent is covering up and not giving them any openings. What should you do? Well, you’re the pro fighter who has a guy’s back while he’s stuck on his hands and knees, Thiago, you tell me!

The arguments against “game plans” and methodical (sensible?) fighting focused toward winning bouts safely are greatly diminished when a fighter like Silva plays it safe to get a much-needed win. The lesson, as always, remains the same: it’s okay to call someone out for not playing into your style or fighting in an “exciting” way, but feel free to do the same thing if you really need to get a W.

Brown-Nunes buried on the prelims

UFC 125 had not one, but two bouts featuring top-ten fighters doing battle. However, we only got to see one as part of the pay-per-view telecast, which was the title bout. The other fight, featuring elite featherweights Mike Brown and Diego Nunes, was stuck on the prelims, for some reason.

Not only that, but it was not one of the three preliminary bouts chosen to be shown on Ion, either. Maybe it’s just a symptom of having a really good card from top to bottom, and I understand that any Phil Baroni fight has a certain amount of entertainment value, but couldn’t we have found a spot for such an important fight for the featherweight division?

In any case, Nunes’ win over Brown is huge and really shows that he’s ready to be a major player in the heavier of the UFC’s two new divisions. It’s just too bad that we didn’t get to see it happen.

Quick shots

–It’s strange to see that so many fighters want to call out Wanderlei Silva. Once one of the most feared fighters in the entire sport, he’s now been called out by Chael Sonnen, Alan Belcher, Chris Leben and Brian Stann. I understand that he carries name recognition and is suddenly vulnerable coming off of a knee surgery and with a sub-.500 UFC record, but still.

–If Frankie Edgar is still holding the lightweight title after another fight with Maynard and his appointment with Anthony Pettis and Clay Guida manages to win his next fight or two in that time span, Edgar-Guida needs to happen. Can you even name me a more entertaining title defense for Edgar, besides possibly Edgar-Pettis?

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Tags: Brandon Vera, Brian Stann, Clay Guida, Diego Nunes, Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard, Mike Brown, Rashad Evans, Thiago Silva, UFC, UFC 125, Wanderlei Silva