Frankie Edgar waited too long to let this opportunity get away from him, and Saturday night at UFC 205 the New Jersey native made good on his first fight at Madison Square Garden by way of a unanimous-decision win over Jeremy Stephens.
Edgar, a former lightweight champion and long-time featherweight mainstay who has been elite for longer than many of his contemporaries have been in the sport, used his patented blend of smarts, quickness and well-roundedness to frustrate Stephens on his way to the win. It didn’t come entirely without peril, however, as Stephens tagged him with a highlight-reel kick in the second round and was very much alive with some nuclear power shots whistling by the jitterbugging Edgar until the final seconds.
The win serves as something of a culmination for Edgar, who moves to 6-2 at 145-pounds and remains undefeated in non-title fights at that weight. He’s been one of the premier stars from the American east coast for the better part of a decade, and to fight and win in New York City is a uniquely thrilling experience for him.
Martial arts developed to allow unarmed combatants to finish an armed foe quickly. Frankie Edgar would be dead at many a Samurai's hand.
— Jonathan Snowden (@JESnowden) November 13, 2016
Furthermore, he washes away his UFC 200 loss to Jose Aldo by bettering Stephens, a fellow veteran who has been a wildly tough out in his career and has been a nasty piece of business since his own featherweight reinvention in 2013. With Conor McGregor still holding gold in the weight class and his future somewhat uncertain, Edgar’s win keeps him in the mix for a title shot given that he’s one of only a few fresh faces who McGregor could defend against.
The fight itself looked like an Edgar fight often does. The early going was defined by Edgar finding his range and blending combinations and takedowns with seamless effectiveness. From there, the predictable moments of harrowing angst followed as Stephens landed a kick flush on Edgar’s chin and sent him reeling to the canvas. Edgar eventually regained his senses on his way to taking back the round and nearly scoring a submission in the final minute before resetting in the third frame and riding out his game plan for the W.
It all leaves Edgar with some options on the table as he moves into the later stages of his UFC career. He could pressure for a McGregor fight, he could find himself with another top contender in his sights or he could pivot into the realm of fun fights and interesting challenges at either lightweight or bantamweight—a class his coach has stated as an option in the past. The winner of Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 makes some sense, or the recently successful Ricardo Lamas if he stays at 145 for the next little while.
For Stephens, he’ll continue to grind away in the back half of the top 10 of the featherweight class and hope to make some progress after this setback. It seems likely that he might want another shot at Charles Oliveira, who beat him in late 2014 after missing weight and is also coming off a loss.
