Holloway picks apart Edgar in UFC featherweight battle
EDMONTON — Reigning featherweight champ Max Holloway successfully defended his belt Saturday, overwhelming former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar in UFC 240 at Rogers Place.
Holloway (21-4-0) won a unanimous five-round decision.
The 27-year-old Hawaiian kept Edgar at a distance throughout the fight, stinging him with jabs and uppercuts in round one and bloodying his nose in round two.
He resisted all but one attempt by Edgar (22-7-1) to take him down and said he was proud to be able to go the distance.
“Everybody said I wouldn’t be able to stay with this pace. I wanted to be able to stay for five rounds,” said Holloway.
Holloway has never lost in the featherweight category, but was coming off a lightweight division loss to Dustin Poirier in April, his first loss in five years.
It was one of two headline fights.
In the other, Brazilian MMA fighting legend Cris Cyborg bounced back into the win column, pummelling Montreal’s Felicia Spencer with punches, leg kicks and knee shots to win a unanimous decision.
Cyborg (21-2, 1 NC) with blood spilling down her face from a first round Spencer elbow, pounded Spencer and repulsed multiple attacks to put her in a clinch or take her down in the women’s featherweight fight.
Spencer (7-1) had the crowd cheering her name as she withstood the assault and launched a few counterstrikes of her own, her white shirt stained red with Cyborg’s blood.
“I trained really hard. Thanks to Felicia for giving me my first cut. I’m happy. I just want to come back and do my job. Thank you, God. I feel very blessed to be here,” said Cyborg.
Cyborg, 34, is trying to rebuild her brand after coming off a loss to Amanda Nunes in a featherweight championship fight in December, Cyborg’s first defeat in 13 years.
This was the last fight on her UFC contract.
She has been trading barbs with UFC president Dana White in the media after he accused her of avoiding a rematch with Nunes.
Cyborg said she’s up for round two. “For sure, I want Amanda. I want a rematch,” she said.
It was a night of mixed results for Canadians.
Gillian Robertson, 24, (7-3 in MMA), of Niagara Falls, Ont., dismantled Brazil’s Sarah Frota, 32, in a women’s flyweight fight, grounding and pounding her in the second round, opening cuts over both her eyes.
Alexis Davis, of Port Colborne, Ont., lost a unanimous women’s flyweight decision to Brazil’s Viviane Araujo, with Araujo pummelling Davis’s face like a punching bag into a puffy, bloody mess.