Penn (15-6-1), a Brazilian jiujitsu prodigy, suffered his first loss at lightweight in eight years when Edgar’s stick-and-move attack style earned the former collegiate wrestler a unanimous-decision win. Edgar (12-1) is now 7-1 in the UFC and could next fight the only guy who ever defeated him: Gray Maynard (9-0).
The night’s second title fight and main event, though, provided the one sour note. UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (26-4) — arguably the greatest fighter in the sport today — picked up his record 11th straight UFC win. But his constant taunting, trash-talking and late-fight refusal to engage a clearly overmatched Demian Maia (12-2) concluded the show in a baffling manner and a chorus of boos.
But no one was angrier than UFC President Dana White. Since Silva won the title from West Chester Twp.’s Rich Franklin in 2006, White has had to excuse similarly bizarre performances from the champ. His patience, though, is wearing thin.
“Anderson Silva might be the first champion in history fighting on a preliminary (card),” White said. “How do you sell Anderson Silva after this? How do you do it? People don’t want to see that (expletive). I don’t want to see it. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
Hinton falls short in national-TV debut
Cincinnati’s Chad Hinton (6-1) took his biggest fight to date, faced one of the sport’s most recognizable stars, had the odds stacked against him, and ultimately suffered a third-round submission loss to former UFC lightweight contender Roger Huerta (21-3-1) at Bellator Fighting Championship’s April 8 event in Hollywood, Fla.
But the loss is likely to do far more good than harm for the 38-year-old latecomer to MMA. He got no bigger endorsement than from Huerta himself.
“Chad Hinton was no joke,” said Huerta, who was often overpowered in the fight. “Just because a guy like Chad hasn’t been publicized and hasn’t been on TV before doesn’t mean he’s not a great fighter.”
Huerta, the first MMA fighter to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, now advances to the semifinal round of Bellator’s lightweight tourney. Bellator airs each Thursday night on FOX Sports Net.
Dann Stupp is editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com, voted best media outlet in the 2008 and 2009 World MMA Awards. For the latest mixed-martial-arts news, go to www.mmajunkie.com.
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