Edgar the answer to lightweight puzzle

BOSTON – Mixed martial arts can be a lot like the weather in New England. If you don’t like who’s on top, wait a little while and it’s likely to change.

Frank Edgar established himself – for the time being – as one of the sport’s superstars with a one-sided mauling of former champion B.J. Penn in the main event of UFC 118 Saturday at TD Garden
Edgar lifted the lightweight title from Penn at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, via an agonizingly close decision. There was nothing controversial about Saturday’s outcome as Edgar battered Penn around the cage as if Penn, not boxer James Toney, were making his mixed martial arts debut.

Penn is one of the greats in the history of the sport, but Edgar has firmly established himself as one of the sport’s active greats. Forget the moronic notion that he should abandon the 155-pound division to compete in World Extreme Cagefighting as a 145-pounder. The next person who asks that should be institutionalized.

All three judges scored the bout 50-45, but even the shutout didn’t really indicate Edgar’s dominance. Edgar outlanded Penn 155-53, but it was even more telling over the final three rounds, when Edgar stepped on the gas pedal and Penn had no answer. In Rounds 3-5, Edgar outlanded Penn 119-23.

After manhandling Penn for 25 minutes Saturday, it was hard to do anything other than to say, “Wow.”

“He absolutely dominated B.J. Penn everywhere in the Octagon tonight,” Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White said. “On his feet, on the ground, wrestling. The first couple of times he took (Penn down), I couldn’t believe it. And not only did he take him down, he was going down hard. He put on an incredibly dominant performance tonight against a guy who has been the best in the world for a long time.”

Edgar has proven himself the equal of the four other men he shares a UFC championship belt with: heavyweight Brock Lesnar, light heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, middleweight Anderson Silva and welterweight Georges St. Pierre.

He hasn’t gotten much respect, despite entering the fight with a 12-1 MMA record and a 7-1 UFC mark. He’s quietly gone about his business and has routinely put on some of the UFC’s most exciting fights and never complained when he wasn’t singled out.

He noted that most fighters compete with a chip on their shoulder, but the one on Edgar’s has to be the size of a boulder. He fights like he has something to prove every second of every match, though that’s usually because he does.

Penn once again failed to show for the postfight news conference, but he didn’t have to say much. The result of the fight said all that needed to be said.

“Frankie fought a great fight,” Penn said in the cage following his second consecutive loss and his third in his last five outings. “He’s the man. I have nothing bad to say.”

If he had, he would have looked stupid. Edgar was magnificent and, at 28, clearly getting better. He’ll get a chance to avenge his only loss, an April 2008 defeat at the hands of Gray Maynard, who earlier on Saturday routed Kenny Florian to set up the rematch.

Maynard manhandled Edgar in that fight, but Edgar has improved so much in the five fights he’s had since that Maynard won’t be facing anywhere near the same person.

“I believe in myself, my team believes in me and if it takes time for you guys [in the media] to believe in me, I know I’ll do that, too,” Edgar said.

He started quickly and ended strong. He outboxed Penn. He took Penn to the ground four times – though Penn has arguably the sport’s best takedown defense. And he seemed to even outgrapple the jiu-jitsu wizard on the ground. Anything a mixed martial artist would need to do, Edgar did on Saturday.

“He’s changed a lot,” Maynard said of Edgar. “Our fight was what, two and a half, three years ago. He has changed a great deal. He’s not the same fighter.”

Penn isn’t either. Two losses in a row and three in his last five don’t signal that he’s on the verge of being finished, but he’s got plenty of soul searching to do. There are times he appears like he’s among the handful of the greatest fighters who ever lived, but more recently, he looks lost.

White isn’t sure what to do with him and Penn, in the cage after the loss, conceded he has to go home and mull over his future.

There are no such problems with Edgar. If he gets by Maynard, there is George Sotiropoulos on the horizon, as well as a legion of other top contenders.

MMA is about as humbling a sport as golf. Fighters who are on top and look invincible one night often appear vulnerable and confused the next time out. It’s the nature of the beast.

Edgar is young and a pro for just under five years. He appears to be a guy still on the rise.

“I built on my confidence [from the first Penn fight],” Edgar said. “The first time I was in there, I had the confidence I could do what I needed to do, but I hadn’t done it before. After doing it and knowing I could do it going in a second time, that confidence added a lot to it.”

Maynard may be the guy who knocks Edgar off his lofty perch. Perhaps it will be Sotiropoulos or even Jose Aldo, the WEC featherweight champion who may eventually jump to lightweight.

Sooner or later, Edgar’s going to be throttled the way he throttled Penn. The person who is the one who ultimately does it remains a mystery.

But we already know this much about that guy: If he’s going to beat Frank Edgar and win the UFC lightweight championship, he’s going to be one damn good fighter

Tubby Toney cashes unearned check

BOSTON – The only proof that boxer James Toney trained with any reasonable effort for his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut is anecdotal – supposedly he dropped 40 pounds just to enter the Octagon at a bloated, bubbly 237.

The deck is stacked against any boxer trying to compete in mixed martial arts – just as it would be for an MMA fighter in a boxing match. It’s why almost no one even tries
But Toney agreed to match up with UFC legend Randy Couture anyway, then he embarrassed himself and his sport by hardly looking like he prepared for a fight that was billed as boxing vs. MMA, even if it was never going to prove anything.

Instead of some definitive statement we got a ridiculous result – Couture earning an easy victory by arm triangle submission at 3:31 of the first round. Toney is nicknamed “Lights Out.” On this night, he never bothered to turn them on.

“Toney lasted longer than I thought he would,” UFC president Dana White said, which isn’t saying much.

Toney is the current IBA heavyweight boxing champion, one of 11 belts he’s held in five weight classes in his impressive career. He had only one route to victory on Saturday night: Landing a perfectly timed punch. Couture, a former All-American wrestler, shot in for a takedown. Toney, who didn’t show up for the postfight news conference, never really threw – let alone land – a significant punch. He fought in what appeared to be a boxing stance, leaving himself completely prone to a wrestling takedown, suggesting he had no idea how to defend himself.

Less than 30 seconds into the fight, Couture employed a primitive single-leg takedown, shooting in low and grabbing Toney’s ankle. The boxer fell backward in a clumsy pile, too slow and top-heavy to do anything.

“It’s pretty easy to counter,” Couture said of the single leg, noting that’s why you rarely see it in MMA. “A good grappler or a good wrestler is going to step out of that.”

Toney is neither. Once on his back, he was finished. Couture delivered some punches and elbows and eventually squeezed his neck until Toney quit rather than lose consciousness. Toney threw perhaps just one punch, a harmless, from-his-back effort.

“I didn’t feel like he demonstrated any real solid skills once he hit his back and butt,” Couture said. “He had no idea.”

Indeed he didn’t, which is why this boxing vs. MMA exhibition was mostly a farce. A young, athletic boxer who actually showed up in great condition would likely lose. Toney literally had no chance with his strategy and preparation.

Couture deemed the experiment “silly,” although he noted it would be the same if he tried to box. “James would probably knock me out in the first round.”

Probably, but it’s also likely a professional such as Couture would at least show up in shape. Toney’s body lacked definition and his stomach hung over his shorts. In MMA, where speed is a must, low body fat is imperative. Toney claimed he trained for eight months for the fight, but it barely showed.

“I’m sure he was prepared as he could’ve been,” White said. “Anyone who knows James Toney the last few years, James isn’t the most physically fit boxer.

“From the day we signed the fight in my office, he lost a lot of weight.”

That’s nice if you’re filming an episode of “The Biggest Loser.” As fights go, it was a joke. Boxing promoter Gary Shaw, a longtime rival of White’s, said Toney looked “like a very old man, slurred his words, and was non-competitive.”

“James Toney had less than a zero percent chance unless Randy had a heart attack from hearing the bell ring,” Shaw said Saturday night.

Shaw went on to call the pay-per-view a “sham,” which isn’t really true. This fight may have been, but White went to great lengths to build a fairly stacked card around it (not all the fights delivered, but on paper they looked good). Toney-Couture wasn’t the main event of the five-fight pay-per-view; Frankie Edgar defended his lightweight title against B.J. Penn in the headliner.

“I didn’t try to sell this as, ‘Tune in, you’ll see the most spectacular war,’ ” White said. “Anything can happen in a fight. … We’re not after boxing.”

And while such a sideshow didn’t speak well for MMA, what does it say for the state of boxing, that a 42-year-old James Toney is someone’s heavyweight champion?

Arguing boxing vs. mixed martial arts is a waste of time anyway. The UFC was founded, in part, to solve the age-old debate of which fighting discipline was best. UFC 1 featured a tournament won by Royce Gracie, a master of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That was 1993. By 2010, a fighter with a command of just one discipline – no matter what it is – rarely lasts. It’s about being well-rounded and dangerous against a number of styles.

“Ninety-nine times out of 100 or 100 out of a 100, the MMA guy is going to win,” White said.

It’s why fights like these never need to be made, a problem compounded when the boxer shows up out of shape, unprepared and with no discernable strategy to do anything other than pray for a miracle punch to land.

James Toney collected a check Saturday night. Would’ve been nice if he’d made an attempt to earn it.