UFC 125 Results: Dana White Did the Right Thing by Planning Edgar-Maynard III

What a way to kick off 2011, eh?

Frankie Edgar was set to avenge his only loss—a loss at the hands of Gray Maynard at a UFC Fight Night event—while Maynard was looking to prove that he can actually beat Frankie Edgar twice.

For the first round, it seemed like Edgar was finally going to get finished in a fight, and many people—myself  included—wound up scoring Round 1 as Maynard's round.

I believe I gave Edgar Round 3 and Round 5—the two rounds of the fight that were difficult to give to one or the other—because of the respective attempts Edgar made to finish Maynard as opposed to the vice versa of Maynard's attempts to finish the champ in those rounds.

When the thought of a draw hit me, I temporarily ignored my scoring and realized that the fight could have gone either way, and it honestly could have.

Maybe it was the excitement involved in the actual fight, or maybe it was the fact that it ended in a draw, but MMA Junkie reports that, while Anthony "Showtime" Pettis is likely to still get his crack at the belt, he's not going to be Edgar's next title challenger.

Instead, the tiebreaker will occur between The Answer and The Bully in what will be Edgar's third title defense.

Why would it make sense to do that rather than give Pettis the shot he was guaranteed after beating Ben Henderson?

Simple: Because when Pettis does get his shot at the belt—and it'd be foolish of Dana to not give Pettis a shot he earned—the man standing across the cage from "Showtime"  should be the undisputed UFC lightweight champion of the world.

I understand how the fight could have been a deadlock, I did score the fight for Edgar, and I was pretty impressed by Maynard's performance, but all that credit being given where it's due, it's completely undeniable that the true UFC lightweight champion is a disputed subject that will be debated until the rematch finally goes down.

I like Edgar, but it's obvious that for every person that felt Frankie should have won the split decision, just as many people feel that Gray should have gotten the decision and the belt.

I say that Anthony Pettis fighting after a non-injury-related layoff beats the hell out of him fighting for the belt in a fight that some will opine was against a guy who was never a top 10 lightweight, so I see no problems if Pettis wants to wait it out.

It may put Pettis on the sidelines for a while, but at least when he gets his shot, we won't have to argue over who truly deserves to be called UFC lightweight champion.

At least then we'll know for sure who has earned the right to battle the WEC's last lightweight champion.

Dana White catches some flak for some of the decisions he makes, but this one was the right call, because in a sense, he's not duping Pettis out of a shot that he earned.

All he's doing is saying, "Listen, this fight could have gone either way, so the reasonable thing to do is settle the dispute and have a rematch occur before we talk about Pettis' shot at the belt."

Sure, I said I had Edgar winning against Maynard, and Dana thought hard to remember, but he recalled giving Gray rounds one and three, with the rest of the fight going to Frankie.

That may warrant Edgar-Pettis as the next lightweight title bout, but again, for all who feel Edgar got the short end of a decision, the same number of people believe Maynard should be 12-0 with the belt on his shoulder right now.

I believe only a handful of fans saw the fight the same as the judge that scored the bout a draw.

We won't know for sure who Anthony Pettis is challenging for the 155-lb. title unless we know for sure who, between Edgar and Maynard, is the true Lightweight Champion—the real UFC lightweight champion.

Therefore, do I say Dana White is doing the right thing by planning a rematch of last night's main event?

Defnitely. It's the only logical way to go before we can move ahead into the future of the UFC Lightweight division.