On January 1, 2011, Frankie Edgar entered the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as a champion whose legitimacy was still questionable in the eyes of many MMA fans. Nine months earlier he’d beaten the longtime lightweight champion BJ Penn in a closely contested fight at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi and then won their rematch four months later. But despite the fact that Edgar's title was vindicated by that second fight, he suffered the fate of a lot of fighters who dethrone a popular champ: begrudging acceptance. After 25 bruising minutes in the cage with a much larger Gray Maynard in Las Vegas, however, all that doubt was gone and a new, beloved champion had been born.

The first round of the Edgar Maynard fight was such a vicious beatdown it would be legendary regardless of the fight's final outcome. Maynard rocked Edgar with a left hook two minutes in that sent him somersaulting backwards. Maynard then chased down the champion and spent close to three full minutes pounding on him--pinning him against the cage and repeatedly dropping him. The referee was on the verge of stopping the fight on more than one occasion.

How Edgar survived to round two is anyone’s guess. By the end of the first round, “The Bully” had landed 47 strikes, 39 of them power punches. It may have been the most lopsided round in UFC history that didn’t end with a knockout or submission.

Still, Edgar was standing when it was all over. And at the beginning of second round it appeared that Maynard had punched himself out. Edgar, miraculously, seemed okay. He went back to his signature in-and-out footwork and a sharp right hand snapped Maynard's head back early in the round. Maynard was now chasing Edgar with little success, and Edgar, back from the dead, was setting the pace.

Halfway through the round Edgar ducked under one of Maynard’s big punches, lifted the larger man into the air, and dramatically slammed him to the mat.

In that split second the undersized, questionable, all-but-knocked-out champion died and the new Underdog King of MMA was born.

Edgar had dealt a psychological blow to his adversary, the judges, and everyone in attendance.

Maynard's corner was furious and berated him between rounds, but the challenger was never be able to secure the momentum again.

While the fight was close all the way to the final bell, Frankie Edgar had come back from the brink and reinvented himself as a real-life Rocky--turning himself into a nearly mythic figure capable of withstanding and coming back from a cinematic level of punishment. The fight would end in a split draw, but Edgar had won the psychological battle. Ten months later he knocked out Maynard once and for all.

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