Optimistic for Franke Edgar vs Gray Maynard at UFC 125

Reposted in part from SBNation's Cageside Seats. We need traffic! lol

via www.ufc.com

Anyone who gets to know me well enough will agree I'm fairly tolerant. When it comes to poor, disappointing or lacklustre fighter performances I believe in second chances and giving fighters the benefit of the doubt in the face of widespread criticism. For instance I was willing to look at certain factors in the Anderson Silva vs Cote / Leites fights while others weren't, although Silva truly lost me in the mockery he made of the sport against Demian Maia which was one of MMA's all time low points in my opinion.

With that in mind I think a lot of the criticism since the Gray Maynard vs Frank Edgar rematch was officially made has been unwarranted and exaggerated. For months we've heard it's a match up that will generate little interest and will have to be propped up by a stellar card due to the inevitable dud the main event would be. I even saw some critics write off UFC 125 completely when Jose Aldo pulled out due to injury but I can only assume these critics also happen to be hypochondriacs.

Edgar vs Maynard part deux has the potential to be a great fight. While I have no problem with a strong card supporting it I disagree with others who say it really needs it but I'm probably in the minority. We all know for any Pay Per View to be a success the casual fans with disposable income is the target audience. Unfortunately in the run up to this fight I don't think Edgar or Maynard have been marketed that well by the UFC, especially Edgar their new champion. Even after two back to back wins against legend BJ Penn maybe they still don't want to invest in Edgar because they believe or hope he won't be champion for long, something I felt they did similarly with Anderson Silva when he first took the belt off Rich Franklin (UFC even tried to give Franklin a sense of home town advantage in their rematch). Maybe the UFC still remember Edgar's prior loss to Maynard and are bracing themselves for an even less popular champion.

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