Edgar survives Maynard with draw

"I'm definitely excited, I'm more excited to hear he's healthy and in shape and ready to fight in March." ---Rashad Evans

Edgar Rallies Back, Leaves With The Belt But Not The Victory; Leben KO'd by Stann in co-main of UFC 125

Octagonside by Anthony Springer, Jr. & Andreas Hale
Photos by Chris Cozzone

Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard engaged in a five round battle that will be a very early candidate for Fight of the Year. The highly anticipated rematch resulted in an outcome nobody could’ve predicted—a majority draw.

Gray Maynard wasted no time taking the fight to the champion. After a brief feeling out process, Maynard began a serious onslaught with a left hook that sent Edgar spiraling back and around the cage. Another right uppercut put the champ on the mat a second time. In what had to be the longest five minutes of Edgar’s career, he miraculously survived the blitz on heart alone.

Edgar battled back in the second frame, connecting with two straight right hands that drew “oohs” from the capacity crowd at the MGM Grand Garden. The rally continued late when Edgar delivered a massive slam to the man they call “The Bully.”

The champion continued the route in the final three rounds, mixing up a series of strikes and takedowns, proving that the undefeated Maynard did not have “The Answer” to the evolving puzzle that is the champion.

Maynard attempted to push the pace in the final five minutes, but was unable to land anything significant. When the final bell sounded, the crowd, which included fighters and fans alike, rose to their feet. .

The judges scored the bout. 48-46, 46-48 and 47-47.

Despite no one’s hand being raised, the real winners here are the fans, who will get to see these two mix it up again before the year is out.

-- Andreas Hale

Stann Crushes “The Crippler”

Brian Stann asked for it, and he certainly got it while proving the world wrong in the process as he earned a stunning TKO stoppage of the normally durable Chris Leben in the evening’s co-featured bout.

Stann promised that if the heavy handed Leben wanted to stand and trade with him, he would end up having his hand raised. He made good on that promise as the former WEC light heavyweight champion sucked Leben into a standup war – which would appear to favor Leben. However, Stann held his ground as Leben winged looping shots and uppercuts at the former military captain. After some back and forth, Stann opened up Leben with a left hook that hurt “The Crippler.”

Knowing that Leben is at his most dangerous when he is hurt, Stann stepped back, dodged Leben’s wild salvo of punches and promptly dumped him with a picture perfect short right hand.

Obviously hurt and on his way out, Leben tried to rely on his heart to keep him in it, but Stann’s fired a monstrous barrage of punches into the head of Leben and forced the stoppage at 3:37 in the first round.

-- Andreas Hale

Silva Back To Winning Ways

Thiago Silva got back in the win column with a dominant unanimous decision victory over Brandon Vera.

In an un-Silva like fashion, the Brazilian took the fight to the ground in each of the three rounds and maintained control throughout.

Vera suffered a broken nose in the final round—the result of a flurry of shots taken against the cage. When the action appeared to stall, Silva livened things up, delivering a series of Karate chops to the back and side of Vera’s neck.

The judges scored the bout 30-26 and 30-27 twice.

Vera has now lost his last three fights in the Octagon. – Anthony Springer Jr.

Kim Remains Undefeated

Dong Hyun Kim’s appeared to take notes from the school of Jon Fitch as he utilized his superior grappling to ground Nate Diaz en route to a unanimous decision as he remained undefeated in his career. Kim’s gameplan was simple, but Diaz’ activity didn’t make it easy for “The Stun Gun.”

The first two frames found Kim taking down Diaz as the Caesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter scrambled to snatch a limb and score a submission. But Kim was strong and savvy enough shrug off all of Diaz’ submission attempts while remaining in control. Perhaps thinking he was ahead after two rounds, Kim appeared to take a breather in the third round. But Diaz stayed active and landed multiple strikes and sought a finish by any means necessary.

A knee to the head of Kim appeared to be thrown while Kim had his hand on the mat – rules state that a knee strike to the head is illegal to a downed opponent – but replays showed that Kim’s hand was off the mat. Diaz saw that Kim was dazed and looked for the kill, but Kim survived and earned the 29-28 decision on all three scorecards. — Andreas Hale

Guida stuns Gomi

Clay Guida said he would finish legendary fighter Takanori Gomi.

He made good on his word.

“The Carpenter” put on a dominant performance prior to scoring a submission victory to open up UFC 125’s main card. From the outset, Guida was a 155-pound ball of constant motion. With footwork for days and wild hair to match, Gomi was never able to get into a rhythm save for a couple of one off shots that failed to do damage. Guida took the opening round with a series of takedowns and never let up from there. After fighting through a knee from “The Fireball Kid” in the second, Guida scored another takedown that would spell the beginning of the end. Displaying a new move from training partner Joe Stevenson, Guida sunk in a tight guillotine choke from the top position, forcing Gomi to tap.

The contest was halted at 4:27 in the second frame. – Anthony Springer Jr.

Preliminaries

Jeremy Stephens made Marcus Davis’ debut at lightweight one that he’d love to forget after a right hand knocked Davis out cold in the third round in a fight “The Irish Hand Grenade” was well on his way to winning. It was billed as a bout that could have earned “Fight of the Night” honors but ended up being “Knockout of the Night.” For two and a half rounds it was anything but as Marcus Davis’ lateral movement and boxing pedigree gave Stephens all kinds of problems in the early going. An overhand right rocked Stephens badly and nearly put him out in the first frame. Heading into the second round, Davis’ movement and ability to take his opponent down had Stephens looking completely lost as he couldn’t muster up much offensively. But midway through the third, Stephens through caution to the wind and caught Davis with a blistering right hand that flattened Davis. A diving right hand punctuated the end of Davis’ night as the bout was waved off at 2:33. – Andreas Hale

Josh Grispi went from title contender to undercard fighter when UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo was sidelined with an injury. He may have lost the opportunity completely. The former number one contender was thoroughly handled en route to a lopsided unanimous decision loss to Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier. Grispi mounted virtually no offense during the 15-minute affair. Poirier teed off at will, landing a series of knees from the clinch position, punches when the two were standing and kicks to the body. All three judges scored the bout 30-27. – Anthony Springer Jr.

Brad Tavares survived an early first round scare to score a devastating first round TKO of Phil Baroni in middleweight action. Tavares was in trouble early after a Phil Baroni left hook nearly detached his head from his body, but Tavares would find a way to keep his senses and make a remarkable comeback. A left head kick shook Baroni as Tavares drilled the “New York Bad Ass” with a right hook and a blistering assortment of punches until referee Josh Rosenthal called a halt to the fight at 4:20. – Andreas Hale

A creative striking attack lifted rising featherweight star Diego Nunes over former WEC champion Mike Brown. The American Top Team fighter came out with a vengeance, unleashing a vicious left hook that buckled the Brazilian. With one eye nearly closed, Nunes mounted a comeback in the final two rounds, delivering a variety of kicks to the face, midsection and legs of Brown who was unable to find a solution. Brown also appeared to run out of gas at the end of the second, making him an easy target in the final five minutes. The judges scored the bout 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 for Nunes, who improves to 16-1. – Anthony Springer Jr.

After weathering an early storm, Daniel Roberts put his top shelf jiu-jitsu to work and submitted Greg Soto in the first round to earn his 3rd victory in a row. Soto got things started off quickly by rocking “Ninja” and going for a guillotine choke. But Roberts would defend, shake the cobwebs and quickly secured a takedown of his own. Shortly after, Roberts began working towards an arm triangle but quickly found an opening and went straight for Soto’s arm. Soto tried to roll through but Roberts had the arm trapped behind Soto’s back and elicited the tapout at 3:45. – Andreas Hale

In a relatively uneventful opening bout Jacob “Christmas” Volkmann narrowly edged veteran fighter AntonioMcKee. Volkmann clearly won the second round on takedowns, while the wily vet handily took the final frame with striking and a late takedown of his own. The judges scored the bout 29-28, 2 8-29 and 29-28 for Volkmann. – Anthony Springer Jr.