A dejected Frankie Edgar walks away after learning of the decision (Photo/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)First it was B.J. Penn, then Gray Maynard. When it's come to settling a score, Frankie Edgar has always been asked to do it again.
At the end of five rounds Sunday, Edgar looked like a man on the wrong side of a beating. The former champion's eye was swollen shut, after being out-struck and out-kicked by challenger Ben Henderson for the majority of the five round fight. Fight Metrics scored the fight for Henderson, as did half the fans on Twitter and all three judges. Still there were those who saw the fight in favor of Edgar and some post-fight controversy was allowed. UFC president Dana White announced on Twitter that he'd been one of the onlookers to score the fight in favor of Edgar, even as he hinted that Anthony Petts would be next in line to fight Henderson, not the recently defeated champion.
Pettis has been resurgent and with another quality win will have earned a title shot, but it's Edgar who over the course of his 18 months has done enough as champion to deserve an immediate rematch.
Edgar has been doubted by the UFC before. They weren't satisfied with his points win against Penn in the original title fight, so Edgar scored a more decisive win in their rematch (even as the original decision was more lopsided than the one Henderson just earned). Penn, a UFC Hall-of-Famer, then moved weight classes, a sign that Edgar was more than just an adversary, he'd become an immovable object, a riddle that the aging Penn chose not to solve. Edgar was given reign of the weight class, but immediately asked to face his only loss.
The second Maynard fight ended in a draw, which prompted the third of the trilogy, which he accepted. Even though Maynard was entitled to the fight, the brutality of the first soiree was such that Edgar seemed a fool to take on his challenger again. He did, and he won. As the UFC moves forward in deciding who is next in line to challenge for Benson Henderson's new belt, they'd be well served to remember what Edgar has endured.
The UFC should show some loyalty to a fighter who has been throwing his face in front of much larger opponents, largely with success. As White noted in the press conferences leading up to the fight in Japan (and notably through links on his Twitter account) Edgar is the sport's Rocky, a hard-nosed fighter who is willing and bale to take severe damage on his way to securing a victory. Fans love him for his courage and see his undersized position at lightweight as more than just a setup for dramatic storylines, but an endearing personality trait.
Some fighters don't fight well across an ocean, it can be jarring and exhausting for them to not sleep in his bed for nine days, to not eat their foods, see workout partners, or enjoy any other portion of their "normal" pre-fight routine. Edgar beat Penn in Abu Dhabi, and there's no indication that Edgar has complained about these things, or that he even felt jet-lagged or affected by the change (much less any more than Henderson), but the overseas location is an added variable that if subtracted could influence the outcome.
Should he not be awarded the immediate rematch, who becomes Edgar's most marketable opponent? A fight with Jim Miller seems unnecessary and possibly unwatchable (unless it's held at the New Jersey state wrestling tournament); the Gray Maynard fights have run their course until one of them again has a title in hand or decide to meet during a farewell fight tour in dozen years (a la Matt Hughes vs. B.J. Penn). Pitting Edgar with Anthony Pettis would only put Henderson on the shelf for 6-8 months and unfairly delay the new champ's career growth.
In the cage, Edgar has fought for his second chances -- times he was out on his feet or tumbling backwards on the mat but came back to secure wins through grit. In those moments Edgar controlled his fate. Now helpless to do anything but wait, Edgar's potential comeback is in the hands of matchmakers, it only seems fair that they give him the opportunity that he was forced to give others.
As Edgar himself posed to the UFC brass and fans inside the cage on Sunday, the decision on whether or not to create a rematch really only comes down to one question,
"What's right?"
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