What You Need To Know - UFC 118: B.J. Penn v. Frankie Edgar 2

With UFC 118 only a day away it’s time to take a look up and down the card and tell you what you need to know about the event before you throw down your hard earned money ordering the pay-per-view, and we do it in convenient bullet-point format!

- The main event is a rematch of the UFC 112 fight between B.J. Penn and Frankie Edgar. It’s difficult to argue against the idea that Penn is the best 155 pound fighter that the sport has ever seen. That is why it was so shocking to see Penn lose to Edgar in their first meeting. Edgar is undersized at lightweight but he is extremely quick, that speed led to him convincing the judges that he was able to get in and out and hit Penn enough to deserve the decision victory.

- The first fight was considered a controversial decision by many. I scored the bout 48-47 for Penn but could see, within reason, a way for the fight to have been scored 48-47 Edgar. The scorecards that were turned in were absurd though with two of the cards turned in reading 50-45 and 49-46. The idea that it was such a lopsided decision was rendered even more laughable by the Fight Metric report. FM does very in depth reviews of the fights and is a much more reliable look at the entirety of the fight than the CompuStrike system. The second round alone showed that Penn landed 17 strikes to 6 for Edgar and Edgar failed on his 3 takedown attempts. Maybe it was the shock of Edgar being able to hang in with Penn or the judges being overly impressed by just the amount of movement Frankie used, but the judges saw a completely different fight than many people.

- Motivation has always been a key for B.J. Penn. When motivated he is, without a doubt, one of the best fighters on the planet. He has, however, had periods in his career where some questioned his training or his desire in specific fights. Still, coming into the first fight with Edgar, B.J. had embarrassed Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez so one expected the same out of him against Edgar. As you’ll see when our predictions go up on Bloody Elbow Friday evening, I think we’re going to see a very motivated B.J. dominate and stop Edgar.

- While Edgar/Penn 2 is the main event anyone taking a look at the way the event has been hyped knows that the bout being billed as “UFC vs. boxing” between James Toney and Randy Couture is truly the “featured” bout on the card. Toney is one of the better boxers of the last 20 years and had racked up an incredible 44-0-2 record before he ever picked up a loss as a professional (coming at the hands of Roy Jones Jr.). In his prime James fought between middleweight (160 pounds) and super middleweight (168 pounds) and defeated almost all of the best the divisions had to offer in names like Michael Nunn and Mike McCallum. He even was named Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year in 1991, a year in which he went 6-0 including knocking out Michael Nunn in the 11th round to claim his first major boxing title.

Now 42 years old, Toney has moved up to the heavyweight division where he has appeared grossly out of shape at times and downright unimpressive despite his initial fight in the division being a stunning TKO over Evander Holyfield. I can not really recommend enough this piece by Bad Left Hook’s Scott Christ which takes a look at the modern boxing career of Toney. This bout will be contested at heavyweight even though it originally was thought to be a light heavyweight bout at 205 pounds but Toney refused that and refused to even fight at a 220 pound limit.

- Randy Couture comes in as a five time UFC champion at the age of 47. The fact that he competes at a high level at his age should be amazing to anyone. He has an extensive wrestling background and was a three time D-1 All-American in college as well as three times an Olympic alternate. Over the years he has added solid striking to his game and has also brought some very good jiu jitsu skills into his arsenal. Still, in his later years he has become a bit “chinny” and was rocked repeatedly by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their UFC 102 bout. This all adds up to a fight where Toney has to look to touch the chin of Randy early before he is taken down and likely finished quickly by a man with much more grappling experience.

- One time middleweight title challenger Demian Maia will return for the first time since his UFC 112 loss to Anderson Silva to face Mario Miranda. Both men are jiu-jitsu blackbelts but Maia is absolutely the higher level grappler. Many times in situations where fighters share the same strength they end up fighting a stand-up fight and avoiding the ground. I don’t think that will be the case in this bout and Maia’s experience against the best fighters in the division should serve him well against a man in Miranda who has a recent loss to Gerald Harris. Miranda is also taking the fight on somewhat late notice as he is a replacement for the injured Alan Belcher.

- Also on the undercard Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard will meet in a bout to determine the next title challenger for the winner of the Penn/Edgar fight. Florian rebounded from his loss to Penn with a pair of impressively dominant victories over Clay Guida and Takanori Gomi. In Maynard he faces a man who is one of the all-time best wrestlers Michigan State University has ever seen. The holder of a 9-0 record, Maynard also has a win over Frankie Edgar and has slowly looked to add a basic striking game to his skill base. Florian is the much better striker and submission specialist but if Maynard can focus on working his wrestling he is absolutely capable of working his way to a decision victory.

- The final main card bout is a clash between Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis. Davis has a pro boxing background but isn’t a guy who runs around knocking everyone out. What he is though, is a man who has developed into a complete mixed martial artist. He rebounded from two straight losses with a TKO over Jonathan Goulet in May. Diaz made the move up in weight after finding little success at 155 pounds. Since 2009 Diaz holds a 2-3 record but does remain a dangerous fighter with some very good skills. This is likely to take place almost entirely on the feet with Davis looking to use hooks and hard punches while Diaz looks to use his three inches of height advantage to work a basic jab/straight punching gameplan. This is almost certainly a contender for fight of the night.

- In addition to the five bouts guaranteed for the pay-per-view there will also be two undercards broadcast on Spike TV starting at 9:00pm Eastern. Former Ultimate Fighter runner-up Andre Winner takes on Nik Lentz in a very interesting bout and Joe Lauzon will look to get back to his winning ways against Gabe Ruediger.

- All-in-all it should be an interesting evening for everyone. Those who want to return to the classic debate of “can a boxer succeed in MMA” can enjoy Toney/Couture, those looking for a “stand and bang” fight will likely get it with Diaz/Davis, high level ground work will be on display between Miranda and Maia and it’s all topped off with a very intriguing rematch between Penn and Edgar.