The success of Frankie Edgar’s offense is often clear to live spectators, the commentators and those viewing at home, but for whatever reason, it is losing its impact with the judges.
After coming up on the wrong end of a controversial decision in his recent rematch with Benson Henderson, former UFC Lightweight Champion Edgar again lost a debatable one at Saturday’s UFC 156 show.
Because Aldo maintained a dominant advantage for the first half of the fight, many will comfortably accept the gist of the decision–that Aldo won the overall battle and gets to keep his UFC Featherweight Championship. But the actual scores are struggling to find much acceptance among fans and critics.
After using his speed and power advantages to claim irrefutable victory in the fight’s first two rounds, Aldo, whose cardio has previously come under question, slowed greatly during the third round. That allowed the always-persistent and always-in-shape Edgar to take control of the fight.
Because Aldo scored early in the third round with a big front kick to the head, it seemed plausible that he did enough to claim victory in the third round. But once the fourth round opened, this was Edgar’s fight.
The New Jersey-based fighter dominated the fourth round and appeared to get the better of Aldo in the fifth as well. Aldo definitely woke up for the final frame, delivering far more effective offense than he had in the previous round, but Edgar still appeared to be the one pushing forward and connecting with the better arsenal of offense.
Five rounds. Two clearly belonged to Aldo. Two seemed to obviously belong to Edgar. It would all come down to the third.
Or, so everyone, including UFC’s announce team, thought. As it turns out, two of the judges only scored one round (presumably the fourth) in Edgar’s favor. Aldo retained his championship via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47).
— Earlier on the show, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira outpointed a surprisingly flat Rashad Evans to score a unanimous decision victory. In addition to outpointing Nogueira with strikes, the veteran showed little difficulty dealing with Evans’ sporadic wrestling offense.
— After a surprisingly low-impact fight, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva cemented his place on future UFC highlight reels with a crushing third-round knockout over Alistair Overeem. Overeem, known for his kickboxing background, showed little concern for Silva’s striking. But late second round offense from Silva called that into initial question, and a brutal, endless supply of punches from Silva put Overeem down and his lack of respect firmly into a box of poor strategic mindsets.
Full UFC 156 results:
Francisco Rivera b. Edwin Figueroa via TKO (punches) at 4:20 of Round Two
Dustin Kimura b. Chico Camus via submission (RNC) at 1:50 of Round Three
Isaac Vallie-Flagg b. Yves Edwards via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Bobby Green b. Jakob Volkmann via submission (RNC) at 4:25 of Round Three
Tyron Woodley b. Jay Hieron via KO (punches) at :36 of Round One
Evan Dunham b. Gleison Tibau via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Joseph Benavidez b. Ian McCall via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Demian Maia b. Jon Fitch via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Antonio Silva b. Alistair Overeem via TKO (punches) at :25 of Round Three
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira b. Rashad Evans via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Jose Aldo b. Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 48-47)
Cry me a river Brian.
Cry me a river Brian.
Cry me a river Brian.