Nothing grinds my gears more than an unjust victory being awarded to a fighter. While Saturday night’s UFC 150 main event clash was not highway robbery and is no time for the fight community to rally together with their torches and pitchforks, in the eyes of many Frankie Edgar should be a two-time UFC lightweight king.
The two went toe-to-toe completing their 50th minute of fighting against one another inside the UFC’s Octagon but when all was said and done Ben Henderson kept his shiny new toy with only Tony Weeks having a scorecard in favor of Edgar giving him a 49-46 tally while Mark Van Tine and Dave Hagen both gave the nod to Henderson 48-47 winning rounds 1,3 and 4.
Well, here at the hypothetical MMASucka office we like to debate, some of these verbal deliberation sessions end in a handshake and a vow to agree to disagree, while other end with us moving the office chairs into an octagonal shape allowing the adversaries to fight to the death.
I pounded the doors down of the crew of employees here asking for their take on the tilt between the two top-ranked stars at 155-pounds, let us find out what they had to say, shall we?
Shawn Smith:
I saw a lot of people on Twitter saying this fight was much closer than the first and I have to disagree. After a dismal first round, I thought Frankie Edgar used his fast movement, body shots and good wrestling to earn himself a decision. The second round was clearly Edgar; he dropped Henderson with a big overhand right and had the champ reeling for the remainder of the round.The third and fourth were certainly close rounds, no question about it. However again, I thought Edgar used his movement well and attacked the body with proficiency we had not seen from him before. The fifth I thought was even more in favor of Edgar as he seemed to have the quicker pace and land the more effective blows.
This was not quite a robbery, but it was close. Edgar won the fight in my eyes.
Sitting at a bar for MMASucka’s UFC 150 viewing party, myself and the rest of the bar scored the fight in favor of Frankie Edgar. How the rest of the bar had it scores, I’m not sure – but I had it 49-46. Which was 4 rounds to 1.The first round was an easy one to call with Henderson pushing the pace. The second had Edgar doing the majority of the work, which made it 1-1 after two.Rounds 3,4 and 5 are where it get sticky. I felt Edgar did enough in each of those rounds to get the judges nod. The only round that in my opinion could have gone to Henderson was round 5, which still would have score the fight 48-47 Edgar.When they had it a split decision, I was in shock, but still confident Frankie pulled it out. This coming from a guy that cheered on Henderson from the time the fight was announced.
Like many others, I had it 2-2 going into the 5th round, so whom ever won the round won the fight. Frankie’s trip to start off the last round wasn’t followed up with any significant damage. I found that in most of the exchanges of the fifth, Benson was landing the last strike and dishing the most damage, just by a little.I though Benson was justified to be the winner.
Heading into a rematch usually there’s one fighter that adapts, learns what his foe is going to do, how to anticipate it and how to manage it, nobody has done this better than Frankie Edgar but early on it seemed that the roles were reversed with Henderson having figured out his range and how to effectively fire off with his leg kicks leaving Edgar at bay and without any major offence in the opening five minutes.
Entering the second stanza the Jersey native just figured out the unorthodox puzzle for Henderson in my opinion, firing back to floor Henderson with a big blow and control the action on the mat for the rest of the round.These two were pretty clear cut, the next three not so much — Round three consisted of both fighters landing offence but neither getting a serious leg up and the final two I felt that Edgar was getting the better of the exchanges, whether or not they were the most hard-hitting shots was probably the issue there but I felt Edgar was landing early and often and won the final four rounds for a 49-46 win.
That’s what we have to say on the issue, but what to we know right? Use the comment section below to tell us how much you vehemently disagree with our opinions and cast your jokes about our mothers.
