Frankie "The Answer" Edgar (left) fights Gray "The Bully" Maynard during the UFC 136 lightweight title bout Saturday night in Houston. Edgar knocked out Maynard in the fourth round. / Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle / AP
HOUSTON — The Ultimate Fighting Championship's main event Saturday night between lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard looked like a replay for three rounds, but in the fight’s 19th minute, the titleholder finally got the win that eluded him in their first two bouts.
“When you have an adversary like that, it makes you bring the best out of yourself,” Edgar says. “He forced me to be the best Frankie Edgar.”
Edgar stunned Maynard with an uppercut-right hook combination and finished him with punches on the ground to force a referee stoppage 3:54 into the fourth round of their fight at UFC 13 in Houston. The champion recorded just his third technical knockout in 14 professional victories.
But first he had to escape another hair-raising opener. Just as he did in their Jan. 1 rematch, Maynard rattled Edgar in the first round with punches to the head, although this time he also landed a kick to the face. Maynard landed 30 power strikes in the first round to six for Edgar, according to Compustrike. The challenger also knocked down Edgar twice.
“That first round, I was like, ‘It looks like we popped in a tape and played the (previous) fight,’” UFC President Dana White said. “It was so crazy that that would happen again.”
Maynard was trying to fight at a steady pace to avoid punching himself out and tiring quickly as he did in the Jan. 1 encounter. But just as he did nine months ago, Edgar recovered quickly to outpoint Maynard the next two rounds using quick movement and fast hands. Maynard frequently found himself swinging at air as he tried to catch his smaller, faster opponent.
“It was looking like Frankie wasn't going to make it out of the first round,” White said. “then the second round, I’m like, ‘What is Gray doing? He knows he just had him hurt.’ He literally didn't do anything in the first half of the second round and Frankie recovered.”
Although Maynard walked through several blows in the first 15 minutes, an uppercut in the fourth round finally rocked Maynard against the fence in the fourth round. Seeing Maynard clearly stunned with his hands down, Edgar dropped him with two more punches and continued flurrying on the ground until the fight was halted.
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