Uppercut Magazine.com - UFC 136 Results

By Don Avila

Resiliency wins again as UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar survived another early assault from challenger Gray Maynard to ultimately win by technical knockout at UFC 136 on Saturday.

Houston saw Edgar (14-1-1) beat Maynard in their third encounter and the smaller guy from New Jersey kept his crown in Texas. The fight was part of another big package from Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Edgar started slowly again and was met with another fast rush by the taller Maynard. Surviving bad starts has become a habit for the lightweight champion and this was no exception.

Maynard tried valiantly to wrest the title from his rival but was unable to keep Edgar’s boxing skills from settling in and dictating the fight. Soon it was evident that Maynard had lost momentum and was not getting it back.

With a tiring fighter in front of him Edgar was able to put together a withering combination that saw Maynard succumb to the blows in round four. The referee stepped in to stop the fight at 3:54 of the round.

It was Edgar’s first win over Maynard. He had fought to a draw early in the year and had lost several years ago. Not this time.

Aldo

UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (20-1) fought off the charges of challenger Ken Florian (14-6) to maintain a stranglehold on the title. But easy it was not.

Florian tried every trick in his thick collection of moves accumulated in his lengthy career, but you can’t teach youth and that’s what decided the fight after five rounds.

Whether fighting while standing or fighting on the ground Aldo was able to prove superior and all three judges agreed on that. It was a unanimous decision win for Aldo.

Sonnen

Chael Sonnen returned to the Octagon after a suspension for enhancement drugs and didn’t miss a beat in beating fast-improving Brian Stann with an arm triangle choke submission at 3:51 of round two.

Of course Sonnen wants another crack at middleweight champion Anderson Silva, but does he deserve it after testing positive?

Phan

Nam Phan (17-9) out-slugged Leonard Garcia (15-8-1) in a close three round fight and was deemed the winner according to the judges. In their last encounter Garcia was the winner. Both could fight a third encounter and it would still be close.

Lauzon

In a lightweight bout bearing title implications it was Joe Lauzon (21-6) who beat Melvin Guillard (29-9-2) to the punch and ultimately stopping him by rear naked choke in 47 seconds of round one.

Other winners

Demian Maia beat Jorge Santiago; Anthony “Showtime” Pettis beat Jeremy Stephens; Stipe Miocic beat Joey Beltran; Darren Elkins beat Tiequan Zhang; Aaron Simpson beat Eric Schaefer; and Mike Massenzio defeated Steve Cantwell.