Sunday, August 29, 2010

No More Questions, Only Answers.


UFC 118 took place this Saturday, during which Frankie "The Answer" Edgar stepped back into the octagon to defend his light weight belt for the first time. Not only was it Frankie's first title defense, but it was also against the man that he took the title from in April.. BJ Penn.

In the previous fight, Frankie ended up winning by decision; however, that's not how BJ Penn saw it. Penn believed that he was robbed, and that Frankie won purely because his corner men lifted him onto their shoulders at the end of the fight in order to "sell" his win to the judges. In my opinion it was clear that Frankie had won, BJ was just being his whiny self and had to give some excuse as to why he lost. BJ is no stranger to excuses, you may recall that he claimed GSP was "greased up" in between rounds which caused him to be slippery and thus making BJ unable to finish him. In both occasions BJ seems to forget about the constant punches that he was taking to the face while giving very few in return, or the numerous times he was taken down during the fight and then being held there for approximately 4/5 minutes in every round.

Joe Rogan brought up a good point about the differences between each fighters corner-men. On Frankie's side, he was getting good technical advice from his corner as well as some encouragement. However, BJ and the "yes men" that he had in his corner were giving him pure pep talks even though he was clearly losing badly. Between every round they would merely say "destroy this kid, your amazing BJ, your better then him, just go kick his ass"! Obviously, this "helpful" advice that BJ was given did absolutely nothing and he lost the decision to Frankie once again, this time not even winning a single round on any of the judges score cards.

It will be interesting to see what happens to both BJ and Frankie now. Frankie will surely move on to defend his title against Gray Maynard, who is the only man to ever beat Frankie in the octagon. If Frankie comes out the way he did against BJ then he will most likely leave with the belt around his waist once again. However, if he cannot out-muscle and out-wrestle The Bully, then he could fall down the light weight rankings fast. BJ, on the other hand, will have a lot more things to think about. BJ has never been known for his work ethic, and I can't see that changing anytime soon. I doubt that BJ will make any severe changes to his camp, or the people that he trains with simply because many of them are his family and he clearly loves to be surrounded by "yes men".

At the end of the day, Frankie "The Answer" Edgar had his best fight ever in the octagon and remains the UFC light weight champ. But BJ "The Prodigy" Penn seems to be quickly becoming the light weight chump.

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