Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

All eyes are on the featherweight headliner this weekend, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. There is a definite feeling of “will the winner get screwed over by Conor McGregor jumping the line for the title shot?” It's perhaps not why Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson would want folks to be watching their fight, but if it gets two of the most proven fighters in the sport more attention, I'm all for it.

Edgar and Swanson's records contain more big names than Johnny Carson's memoirs. Edgar has bested guys like Gray Maynard (x2), Sean Sherk, B.J. Penn (x2.5), and put up spirited performances against men like Jose Aldo and Benson Henderson (x2). Edgar has never been stopped and never been dominated. Meanwhile, Cub Swanson has fought almost everyone in the UFC featherweight division, and battered most of them.

I cannot think of a fighter who better encapsulates the notion of heart and will to win than Frankie Edgar. He's been on the arse end of some terrific beatings, only to grit his teeth and pour it on later in the fight. The guy is a sponge for punishment and after two rounds of soaking it up he'll drown you with the dirty water.

Swanson, meanwhile, is the epitome of martial arts creativity. The beauty of martial arts—for me at least—is in the Eureka moments. The invention of unseen combinations, feints and set ups, not in simply becoming a one-size-fits-all fighter in the cookie cutter mold of so many others. Whoever is keeping Swanson on point strategically but allowing him to work however the hell he wants technically is doing great things for not only Swanson, but the viewing public.

Wrestle-Boxing 101

Frankie Edgar's style is divisive in the MMA community. It's undeniable that his movement wins him fights, but many think that a lot of what he does is movement for movement's sake. In my eyes, there is some truth to the latter notion. Edgar will show a dozen or so punches at thin air before he steps in with a good one or a combination.

While I like to work from a fighter's most recent footage, trace back to their most significant losses, and compare the styles on display, I think we should get the third Penn bout out of the way early. It was a really dumb match. Manipulative matchmaking at it's absolute worst. Penn had retired as a welterweight, and was suddenly supposed to cut down to featherweight and fight a guy who had beaten him twice already, and was still going against the best guys in the world with little difficulty. It was really just a waste of everyone's time.

The most memorable part of watching the bout was my friend asking me why Penn was “mincing” across the ring at Edgar. I'm not inside the mind of anyone else, but I have a feeling that the reason Penn adopted his weird, under practiced stance and footwork was because of the difficulty he had keeping up in the first two bouts.

Edgar's constant lateral motion worked a treat against Penn because of Penn's long boxing stance, with the lead foot turned in, and slow turning speed. Edgar would move to the sides and land a low kick or attempt a combination while Penn was still pivoting to face him. Go back and watch through the trilogy and you'll notice that Penn squares up more in the second fight—where he gets hit more and taken down more than in the first. And in the third fight he's fighting completely square on to deal with the movement and the low kicks.

When you watch an Edgar fight this lateral movement is constant. Here he is performing his weird little reverse side step—opening the hips up with the left step, as if to throw a right hand, then pivoting in behind his left leg. He does this so often that it seems like a nervous twitch.

The problem with all his lateral movement is that against an opponent who can actually keep up with him by pivoting and getting on guard while he's circling, Edgar resorts to running in on a straight line. Circle left, circle right, oh goodness—he's keeping up, charge! And that is how most of his bout with Jose Aldo played out. Edgar would move, Aldo would turn in time with him, then Edgar would stop circling and run straight in, and Aldo would smash him with a hard jab.

Really the bout with Aldo was a master class in the pivot. Every time Edgar dashed forward on a straight line, Aldo would slam a jab or hook in, then pivot off and Edgar, for a change, would have to pivot to follow Aldo.

Edgar's real moneymaker is his beautiful set up to the single leg. My wrestling nomenclature isn't super—I'm English after all—but I know a good deception when I see one. Constant dipping jabs and level changes allow Edgar to set up a little duck in, at which point his right hand goes to the leg and his left hand will often slam into the shoulder or even face—just as it would on the jab.

Here's some of his attempts against B.J. Penn in their first match.

Notice the jabs look almost the same to Penn as the entry on the takedown attempts. The first fails, the second succeeds briefly, and on the third Edgar jumps a step ahead and uses it to set up a lovely body kick. The old “jab and shoot” from across the ring stopped working on the highest level back when Hammer House were still around, but a wrestler who can comfortably get into boxing range doesn't need to create much of an opening for his level change.

Beautiful Destruction and Reckless Aggression

My love of Cub Swanson's game is well documented. Swanson is unique in that he knows how to box properly and stay on guard, but he often opts to throw his full weight into every blow. What happens is that rather than looking like a controlled process with everything happening on top of his stance, it seems as though Swanson is being dragged along behind his strikes. But it isn't like Takanori Gomi, with his feet slipping all over the place and his chin out as he tries to chuck his sledgehammer like hands at his opponent. It's that same tactical sacrifice of form for power and unorthodoxy that Prince Naseem used to make.

Watching Swanson is a peculiar study in human movement. Every blow has what Cus D'amato called “bad intentions” behind it, and it's almost as if Swanson's hips dictate what comes next. For instance, against Ricardo Lamas, Swanson repeatedly went to the left hook into the left round kick. The hips rotate and throw the shoulders round into the punch, then the hips follow slightly behind with the kick. It's goofy as hell to watch, but completely unexpected.

Swanson was also one of the pioneers of that movement we've seen take over MMA, the low-low kick. That is, kicks to the calf or the shin rather than to the thigh. Kicks to the thigh can ride up and offer up easy takedowns, low-low kicks don't do that. Against Lamas and numerous others, Cub kicked the calf and knocked his opponent's lead leg across them. A beautiful way to create a moment in which to attack where the opponent can do nothing but try to get back on balance.

What most low-low kickers don't do is kick shin to shin. Why? Because it hurts! Swanson does it pretty routinely though, with the force to lift the opponent's foot from the mat. Against Dustin Poirier, Swanson flowed it beautifully into that power lead hook.



Glorious

And that's to mention the shifting blows, the body kicks, the bizarre bent-over-at-the-waist high kicks, the capoeira techniques and so on. But Swanson is no defensive genius. Heavy handed, creative offence and comfort under fire is what Swanson is all about. He eats low kicks with no regard for checking them.

He's a terrific offensive mind, and a scrapper, but he ends up trading punches with the opponent in almost all of his fights, and that's not what you want to see in a fighter of his level. It's exciting as hell, but he's giving guys chances to crack him that their skill alone wouldn't buy them, were he fighting smart.

Even in his most recent fight, where Swanson shut out the dangerous Jeremy Stephens, Swanson allowed his man chances a guy like Jose Aldo would not allow to an overmatched opponent. After hurting Stephens with a body kick, Swanson would pursue the finish and allow Stephens the opportunity to tie him up while he swung wild.

Conclusions and the Stakes

Edgar and Swanson are almost polar opposites as fighters. Swanson is wild and creative, looking to finish at every opportunity. Edgar sticks to the game plan and works for the decision. That is not to say that Edgar can't finish, but when he does finish an opponent, it is an exception.

Edgar's lack of power can hurt other aspects of his game. It is great to mix your wrestling and boxing so fluidly, but if they both play off of each other, neither works as well if you let yourself down in one area. Through the first three rounds against Jose Aldo, Edgar looked too concerned about Aldo's power to step in with real strikes, instead “showing” rather than “throwing” punches. It was only once Aldo began to tire and Edgar started finding a home for his excellent counter right hand that we saw a more confident Edgar in all areas of the game. That being said, Edgar might not need to work so hard to create opportunities for his wrestling: Swanson might just give them to him underneath those long, swinging hooks. Edgar is a short guy to begin with, but he can level change in a flash and suddenly a striking exchange is a wrestling match. He might not be the premier grappler in the division, but he's got a strong enough top game. And against Ricardo Lamas, Swanson didn't really get out-grappled so much as he hung out in a bad position against a guy who you can't afford to play games with.

Edgar has submission chops, but they might not be altogether necessary if Swanson simply stays on his back attempting submissions as he can tend to do if he feels comfortable there. Remember that in a five round fight, three well timed takedowns and a few minutes of top control is all you need to secure a the fight on the scorecards.

Really, this fight seems like Cub Swanson's big chance. He's not lost a fight since his UFC debut, and has gone on a tear to make up for his losses to Aldo, Chad Mendes and Ricardo Lamas. If he can win this fight, you can quite easily imagine him being placed against Conor McGregor for number one contender, or getting a title shot of his own if the UFC are feeling that way inclined. But this fight is a real test for him, he just hasn't fought a good takedown artist since he lost to Ricardo Lamas.

If Edgar wins, don't expect him to get the same treatment. His last two fights haven't been impressive, he decisioned Charles Oliveira, and picked up an easy pay day against the ghost of B.J. Penn, but he's only a year or so removed from a loss to Jose Aldo and he doesn't have a particularly fan friendly style. The UFC certainly isn't going to put such a gifted wrestler in against McGregor.

At any rate, it is rare to see two guys of this level compete in anything but a title fight. Yet with the absolute feast of talent available at featherweight, we're getting it now with the promise of an even better match up down the road. Don't miss the fight this Saturday, and get back here on Sunday to hear about anything cool that happened.

Check out these related stories:

Jack Slack: Swanson Bests Stephens, Oliveira's Grappling Masterclass

Cub Swanson: Winning Without Moving Forward

What Is the Sell-by Date on Frankie Edgar's Durability?