UFC 136 Results: How Long Will Frankie Edgar Hold on to His Belt?

UFC 136 played host to a stacked card, which took place in Houston, Texas. In a trilogy finale between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, it was the kid from Tom’s River, N.J. that proved to the world he truly is deserving of the title “champion.” 

After starting off eerily similar to their last fight, a beaten and bloody Edgar managed to forge his way through the first round. After, it seemed like Edgar had regained his composure and Maynard didn’t apply enough pressure throughout the second and third rounds. 

In a stunning moment, Edgar caught Maynard and hurt him. After following up with some more punches, Maynard dropped to the canvas, and was ultimately knocked out by the current UFC lightweight champion. 

Edgar handed “The Bully” his first career loss, as well as avenged his only loss. The two have now fought three times, leading to an inevitable fourth some point down the road to truly settle the debate.

Edgar’s record is now 14 and Maynard, and Gray Maynard is 10 and Edgar. 

But who’s next for the UFC lightweight champion? 

Edgar went out and finished the toughest opponent of his career, and did so after coming back from a painful first round. But Gray has shown the division that with the right punches, Edgar can be rocked and bloodied. Maybe not knocked unconscious, but most certainly dazed enough to capitalize on and gain a TKO.

There are many fantastic and talent-rich athletes that are coming up through the ranks and are waiting for their chance at the UFC gold. Among them are Ben Henderson, Clay Guida, Donald Cerrone, Dennis Siver and of course, Gilbert Melendez. 

While not officially scheduled to fight or come over, it would seem Melendez is not too far away from crossing into UFC territory, and possibly jumping straight into a title shot. But how does Edgar stack against these other lightweights? 

Edgar has been fighting the past two years against only two men. These past two years have put Edgar in four fights, defending the title in three of them.

B.J. Penn and Maynard had become the spotlight and forefront of Edgar’s mind and career. Now with both dealt with, MMA fans want to know how he fares against these other hungry fighters. 

One thing can be said now of Edgar for certain. He has proven he can hold onto the belt, and doesn’t show signs of letting it go just yet. In both of his two-fight stints with Penn and Maynard, they had a common parallel to them. The first fights were controversial, but Edgar came back the second times to definitively show he was the better fighter. 

Within these four fights, especially the ones with Maynard, Edgar showed the world what he has that makes him a champion’s champion: 

He has heart. A “Brock Lesnar’s protein intake” amount of it. 

In his bout at UFC 136, it was hard to not watch Edgar and give him credit for being able to hang in there and push through his challenges, and then turn it all around. Not only that, but to have gone through 12 rounds in total with an undefeated guy that has come so close to beating you twice on two separate occasions, you have to admire the drive. 

His heart is what will be a deciding factor in determining how long he keeps his belt. He is a hard-working fighter that comes prepared for his bouts, and with the fighting spirit driving him, he pulls off the impossible. 

The past two years have been a roller coaster for champions winning and losing the belts, aside from Silva and GSP. Then two weight classes were added, and the talks of those titles started to get mainstream. 

Edgar, however, is a fighter that you can never count out and seems grounded in his spot at the top at 155 lbs. He has now successfully defended his title three times, and only has one loss on his record. 

Will Frankie hold onto his belt for years and years? It’s possible, but now that Gray and B.J. are out of the picture, we can all start to evaluate how Edgar is with other lightweights. 

Some of the most dominant fighters in all of combat sports are ones that had their losses earlier in their career, and then went on to destroy the competition. Pacquiao, GSP, Silva and Edgar are all examples of this. 

But with his heart and skills, he could very well have problems with such aggressive and impressive attackers like Gilbert Melendez. It would seem that the way to beat Edgar is to out-strike him and attack his chin, and as all the MMA fans know, the lightweight division has some very deadly strikers.

But with less dominant wrestling skills, maybe the new challengers for Edgar’s title will be faced with a much more dominant ground game from Edgar. 

Regardless, “The Answer” will be taking a much deserved break and recuperate. He has shown he has the ability, and above all else, the heart of a champion. How long will Edgar hold his belt? The MMA universe is now waiting more anxiously to see.

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Who do you want to see Edgar face next? How long do you think he will hold the belt?