UFC President Dana White has confirmed that the lightweight title rematch between current champion Benson Henderson and former titleholder Frankie Edgar will headline UFC 150 on August 11 in Denver, Colorado.
Henderson won the title from the New Jersey native at UFC 144, earning a unanimous decision victory in a back-and-forth fight many had scored in favour of Edgar.
While it was initially suggested that Henderson would face former WEC foe Anthony “Showtime” Pettis in his first title defence, Edgar lobbied to be awarded a rematch, citing his back-to-back fights with both BJ Penn and Gray Maynard as precedent.
White lobbied for “The Answer” to move to featherweight, where an immediate title shot against Jose Aldo awaited, but Edgar and his team stuck to their guns, and a second meeting with Henderson came together.
But is that really a good thing for the UFC, the lightweight division, or the fans?
Don’t get me wrong: I loved their first meeting, and am stoked to see the sequel, but I can’t help but wonder if all these rematches actually do more harm than good in the long run?
A win for Edgar in August levels the series at one win each. Would Henderson then get a rematch of his own; a trilogy bout to break the tie?
In the interim, the lightweight title chase is on pause.
After being bumped from a title shot by a rematch for the second time in as many years, Pettis opted to have surgery on his injured shoulder, leaving him sidelined until late summer or early fall. Nathan Diaz had seemingly earned himself a shot at the title following his win last weekend against Jim Miller, but the overwhelming feeling coming out of that fight is that he’s more likely to meet Pettis later this year than fight for the title.
There is no better example of a casualty of the championship logjam than Miller, who had amassed a seven-fight winning streak at one point without challenging for the title. When his chance to earn a shot finally came around, he lost a one-sided battle to Henderson, who used the win to propel himself into his own “title eliminator” bout later in the year.
The same goes for Pettis, who opted to take a tough fight against Clay Guida rather than wait out Edgar and Maynard last year, only to have Guida earn the victory by using his wrestling to control the creative striker on the ground.
In addition to the congestion they create within the division, rematches can result in missed star-making opportunities as well.
No fighter was riding a bigger wave of momentum heading into 2011 than Pettis. Fresh off landing “The Showtime Kick” in his WEC 53 battle with Henderson, he entered the lightweight division with a great deal of buzz even before stepping into the cage. Six months and one bad match-up later, that momentum was gone, and Pettis was looking to get back into the win column in a preliminary card fight opposite Jeremy Stephens.
While he still has legitimate star potential, Pettis’ arrival as a marquee name in the lightweight division is already long overdue, and these frequent rematches are partially to blame.
Matt Hughes is one of the greatest champions in UFC history. After he lost the welterweight title to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 65, he didn’t get a rematch, despite having won five consecutive title fights prior to that. Instead, Hughes faced Chris Lytle.
Same goes for Chuck Liddell after he lost the light heavyweight title to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. His first loss in three years earned him a meeting with Keith Jardine, not a do-over against Jackson.
Times have changed.
Now, every close fight is called “controversial,” and the Internet explodes with demands for an immediate rematch following every back-and-forth battle that goes to the scorecards.
The precedent is there for Edgar to get his rematch, and I think it’s the right call for this fight, but moving forward, the UFC needs to do their best to move away from immediate rematches.
If Jon Jones should happen to lose to Dan Henderson later this year, don’t match him up with “Hendo” for a second time right away; let someone else have a shot at the title first, and build to the rematch.
Seeing the same two people battling for divisional supremacy becomes stale, and stalls the development of other fighters with championship potential.
New stars are made through big fights on the biggest stages, but they’re never going to get their chance at stardom if the same cast of characters are always going back-and-forth over championship belts all the time.
E. Spencer Kyte is the author of Keyboard Kimura, the MMA blog of Vancouver’s leading newspaper, The Province. Follow him on Twitter (@spencerkyte), or Facebook.
Sam Brown
Roar Guru
Rematching in the lightweight division has become a bit of a joke (see my most recent column for the punch line). Constant rematches has meant Anthony Pettis, George Sot, Jim Miller and now Nate Diaz have all missed out on shots. Since Edgar has been champ he has only dominated one match: his second fight with BJ. While impressive comebacks, in ioth his fights against Maynard he was beaten pillar to post. Personally I think he should have had to do what Uriah Faber had to do after his close loss to Cruz last year: take on a top contender while the champ takes on someone else. Only current champs that deserve a rematch should he lose are Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo becuase Silva is the greatest MMA fighter ever and Aldo is most likely the greatest featherweight ever (and he would only get a rematch if it was a close one).
E. Spencer Kyte
Roar Guru
I agree that it's a delicate balance, and I hope this is the last time we see an immediate rematch in the lightweight division — or any division — for a long time.
E. Spencer Kyte
Roar Guru
Dana White's last name isn't Edgar, and he thought "The Answer" won the fight. So too did Lorenzo Fertitta. You're correct in your assessment of Penn getting a rematch because he's BJ Penn and one of the greatest (if not the greatest) lightweight of all-time, and it being a close fight, but wrong (IMO) that Edgar hasn't done enough to merit the same opportunity he was compelled to afford both Penn and Maynard. He beat Penn twice, the second time handily, and then finished Maynard in their third fight. As much as Anthony Pettis scored a flashy win at UFC 144, collecting a split decision over Jeremy Stephens and stopping Joe Lauzon isn't enough to earn a title shot in my books. After the dust settled and Edgar made his case — which was made mostly privately — the UFC saw it that way as well. The division isn't nearly as "jammed up" as you think either. Outside of Nathan Diaz, no one has really done enough to truly earn a title shot, and that includes Pettis, and Diaz just put himself in place to challenge for the belt last week. Whether or not you like Edgar's style has nothing to do with him being deserving of a rematch — or why Penn was awarded a do-over after UFC 112. He won the fight unanimously in Abu Dhabi, and then proved it wasn't a fluke by putting an even more convincing beating on BJ the second time around. I'm not a fan of immediate rematches — I think they clog up the divisions, and would rather see them happen after a fight or two — but this one made perfect sense to me. It's cool that you don't agree... I like debates. Keep reading — and keep commenting too!
ErinT
Roar Guru
It's a fine line between what's right for the fighter and what's right for the fans. Does Edgar deserve a rematch? Sure, if people think it was that close. And given he had to fight 2 rematches with the title it can be only fair. Would I rather that the Lightweight title get out of the habit of rematching? Yes! We have enough competitors in the division to create exciting events - Anthony Pettis, Nate Diaz, Jim Miller to name a few, you could even get Gilbert Melendez (Strikeforce lightweight champ) if required. The danger is creating a sense of discontent for fans in the Lightweight division.
Michael
Guest
Good article.. However I disagree where you say that giving Edgar "is the right call". In fact I believe quite the opposite. Edgar got this mulligan for an entirely different reason than BJ Penn. Penn got the second chance for many reasons actually. First because he was widely considered the greatest LW of all time & Edgar was practically unmarketable at the time. Second, many thought that BJ may have won the fight, and those that agreed with the judges felt that Edgars point sparring style was just not enough to strip the great BJ Penn of his title. But third, and probably the most important, was that Penn had all but cleaned out the division. There just weren't any challengers waiting in the wing at that time. Fast forward to present day. You have a young charismatic fighter who seems to have an unlimited potential. You have a fight where I don't know anyone that even thought it was close (who's last name isn't Edgar). and you have a division that is more jammed up than a junkies ass hole. That is exactly why I think your wrong. This is the wrong call at the wrong time. So why is he getting the mulligan you ask... Because he asked for it. Which in my opinion is becoming a strange trend as of late in the UFC, where a guy can cancel plans and jump right over ready and waiting contenders by picking up the microphone and calling someone out.. or even worse... whining about a dicision. So I definetly understand that Edgar has picked up some fans since way back when he was that unmarketable point fighter that fought BJ Penn for the first time. But he doesn't deserve a rematch against Henderson.