Frankie Edgar deserves another shot at the title after dominant win over Yair 'Panther' Rodriguez at UFC 211
Frankie Edgar made it clear that he deserves another shot at the 145-pound title after a dominant victory over Yair 'Panther' Rodriguez in the main event of UFC 211. The fight was stopped by medical decision after the end of the second round.
Edgar's elbows repeatedly connected with Rodriguez's left cheekbone, leaving him with no visibility after 10 minutes of battle, thus ending his six-fight winning streak in the octagon.
Rodriguez quickly felt the boxing skills of the New Jersey native, who quickly connected with his hands and made him retreat. He had never been punished in that way before in the promotion, and since Frankie attempted the first takedown, it would be difficult to escape his dominant position. Not even the support of the thousands of Mexicans who made the trip and waved the tricolor flags at his entrance was enough to escape the wrestler's dominance.
The winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter has developed a good takedown defense against fighters with a wrestling background like Edgar, but his drive and physical condition were too much. Rodriguez never stopped trying and absorbed the American's elbows.
He came out of the break with such a large inflammation that the cutman could do very little to reduce it. He entered the second round knowing that things would only get more complicated and that a radical change in strategy was necessary.
But he could do very little, once again, it took only a few seconds before a new takedown attempt came, this time Yair was close to locking in a guillotine before being slammed to the ground and once down he took Edgar's leg, which miraculously survived. There was no escape, Frank is as strong as ever, stopping another great striker as he had recently done with Cub Swanson and Jeremy Stephens.
The former lightweight champion continued to hit hard with elbows and punches, took his opponent's back but couldn't finish the fight. Yair made it to the end of the round, but as soon as he reached his corner, the doctors from the Texas Commission ran to check on him.
There was no visibility or way to continue the fight, there were moments of confusion and Frankie's team demanded that it be stopped. And so it was.
'Panther' now holds a 6-1 record in the octagon and "The Answer" will now be keeping an eye on what happens at UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro, where José Aldo and Jerome Max Holloway will unify the featherweight title that Conor McGregor never defended, as he rightfully deserves another title shot.
UFC 211
American Airlines Arena
May 13, 2017
TV: Fighting Sports Network 17:30 hrs. (Preliminaries), 21:00 hrs. (Main Card)
ALL RESULTS
Main Card
Stipe Miocic def. Junior dos Santos (TKO, strikes) (R1, 2:22) (retains UFC heavyweight title).
Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Jessica Andrade by unanimous decision (50-44, 50-45, 50-45) (retains UFC strawweight title).
Demian Maia def. Jorge Masvidal by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29).
Frankie Edgar def. Yair Rodriguez (TKO, doctor stoppage) (R2, 5:00).
David Branch def. Krzysztof Jotko by split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29).
Preliminaries
Eddie Alvarez vs Dustin Poirier ruled a No Contest (Accidental Eye Poke) (R2, 4:12).
Jason Knight def. Chas Skelly (TKO, strikes) (R2, 0:39).
Chase Sherman def. Rashad Coulter (TKO, strikes) (R2, 3:36).
James Vick def. Polo Reyes (TKO, strikes) (R1, 2:35).
Early Preliminaries
Cortney Casey def. Jessica Aguilar by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
Enrique Barzola def. Gabriel Benitez by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Gadzhimurad Antigulov def. Joachim Christensen (Rear-Naked Choke) (R1, 2:21).