UFC 125 Review

The UFC returned to the fight capital of the US for its 125th show and the Las Vegas crowd was spoiled with another action packed card.

JOE

The UFC returned to the fight capital of the US for its 125th show and the Las Vegas crowd was spoiled with another action packed card.

By Fergus Ryan

Fans, as well as two particular fighters, left feeling there was some unfinished business after the main event and lightweight title bout was scored a draw. The action packed five rounder again cast doubt over some Athletic Commission judges’ ability to score MMA fights.

Gray ‘the Bully’ Maynard put a massive beating on Frankie ‘the Answer’ Edgar in the first round, flooring him with punches twice and unleashing vicious ground and pound that some referees may have waved off.

Maynard threw an incredible 97 strikes in the opening five minutes. To put this in context, Rampage Jackson threw 91 on the way to a three round decision over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123. It was at least a 10-8 round for Maynard but could have been a 10-7 as the fighter himself expressed in the post-fight press conference.

Edgar might have agreed with such one sided scoring, if he could remember the round. During the break between the third and fourth he could be clearly heard asking his corner-men, “What round was it?”

In the post-fight presser, when asked what he recalled of the first round he admitted, “Not much dude.”

So why wasn’t the fight stopped? Edgar never stopped moving, striking back and never dropped his hands despite Maynard’s’ all-out assault. Thankfully, referee Yves Lavigne recognised the intelligent defence Edgar was putting up and allowed the fight to continue.

Assault

Edgar showed his mettle after the early assault, fighting back to clearly win the second and fourth rounds. Maynard probably shaved the third leaving the fifth round, in theory, the decider. Not so, as all three judges returned different verdicts – one in favour of each fighter and one draw.

What can be said definitively is Frankie Edgar is a legit champion. He’s fought 15 furious rounds in winning and defending the belt. The last four rounds against Maynard really showed his will as a champion, particularly his highlight reel slam of Maynard in the second.

The fallout has still to be finalised. The WEC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis was promised a crack at the winner to unify the belts. He may now have to wait until after a rematch between Edgar and Maynard.

With the announcement over the weekend that Chuck Liddell was retiring, we may also have seen ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ Marcus Davis for the last time in the octagon as he was KO’d in the third by ‘The Little Heathen’ Jeremy Stephens. Two rounds up, Davis seemed to tire as Stephens poured on the pressure.

By the third round Silva was reduced to bitch slapping Vera in frustration as Vera stalled and turtled for large parts of the fight.

Other notable performances included Clay Guida utilising bizarre ring movement to beat Takanori Gomi with a guillotine in the second. Korean welterweight Dong Hyun ‘Stun Gun’ Kim translated his judo grappling skills into a smothering top game to defeat Nate Diaz by decision. He may, however, have been a little premature in calling out GSP for a title shot.

Brad Tavares, meanwhile, had a come-from-behind KO victory over ‘The New York Bad Ass’ Phil Baroni in the first. ‘All American’ Brian Stann then proved extremely impressive in demolishing teak tough Chris Leben in the first round.

Thiago Silva had too much power for the perennial nearly man Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera. Each round opened with Vera landing chopping leg kicks only to then get man-handled by Silva in clinches against the fence. By the third round Silva was reduced to bitch slapping Vera in frustration as Vera stalled and turtled for large parts of the fight. Vera made light of the disfigured broken nose he was left with after Silva took a unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards.

Results