UFC 205 results: Frankie Edgar survives head kick to outduel Jeremy Stephens in thriller

NEW YORK – Frankie Edgar survived a head kick and near knockout at the hands of Jeremy Stephens, and still he won every round according to two of the three judges.

On the strength of his takedowns and quick strikes on the feet, Edgar (21-5-1 MMA, 15-5-1 UFC) outpointed a game and dangerous Stephens (25-13 MMA, 12-12 UFC) to claim the unanimous decision victory with scores of 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28.

The featherweight bout closed out the preliminary card of today’s UFC 205 event at Madison Square Garden in New York. It aired on FS1 following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass and ahead of the main card on pay-per-view.

For Edgar, the challenge in this fight was finding a way to overcome Stephens’ advantages in size and power. That wasn’t easy early on in the fight, as Edgar struggled for takedowns in the opening round, only to have the much bigger Stephens pop right back to his feet after being hauled down.

The action took a turn early in the second, as Stephens dropped Edgar with a head kick and nearly finished him with a knee as Edgar staggered to his feet. But even after Edgar wobbled away from that Stephens assault, he found a way to come back strong in the second half of the round, scoring a key takedown and nearly locking up a guillotine choke before settling for landing some elbows from the top before the horn.

That sent the fighters to a close third round, and Stephens’ punching power remained a threat until the end. So too did Edgar’s takedowns, which halted any momentum Stephens built up and likely swayed the judges in his favor, as all three gave the fight to Edgar in the end.

The victory gets Edgar back in the win column for the first time since his loss to Jose Aldo at UFC 200 in July. Stephens has now lost two of his last three.

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(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan, Matt Erickson and Mike Bohn contributed to this report on site in New York.)