I was there live and I scored it for Aldo. Third round was close, but whatever.
Edgar took too much damage and punishment. Aldo I think landed the harder cleaner shots.
But see if that is the case with the judges, then it's a big flawed problem. You don't score a round based upon damage he took in a previous round. Each round should be judged completely separately. The majority of the damage Edgar took was in rounds 1 & 2, however in rounds 3, 4 & 5 considering Edgar outstruck Aldo in each round, there can be no argument to be made in favour of Aldo doing more damage in those rounds than Edgar.
You could point out that Aldo didn't have much if any visible damage done during those rounds so were Edgar's strikes really
'significant'? You have to keep in mind that during those 3 rounds, Edgar mixed his strikes up with head, body & leg blows, whereas Aldo predominantly attacked Edgar's head & briefly his legs before he stopped throwing kicks after Edgar caught a couple of them. You also need to keep in mind that people are different & some people bruise, swell up & cut easier than others. Look at BJ Penn.. his face skin is like leather.
My main problem isn't that Edgar lost, because I felt it was a close fight, I think the 3rd round could have went in favour of either, my main problem is that 2 judges scored 49-46 Aldo.
And I said this in the last Henderson fight, these are the perils of Edgar's fighting style. He's generally a point fighter. He's got this in and out pitter, patter style. And he can hit a lot of strikes, but is it really working?
I still believe Edgar lost the first fight with BJ Penn 4-1.
Edgar's style would be very technical based. He doesn't have outstanding explosive power so he compensates for having good movement & creating angles for himself to throw 3 or 4 speed attacks & getting out as opposed to a 1, 2 type power swinger.
He's one of very few MMA speed fighters. In some aspects you could compare him to Floyd Mayweather who also doesn't have massive KO power, but he can land alot of shots & make his opponents miss theirs.
To me if a fighter lands 20 blows in a round & his opponent lands 10, the fighter with 20 landed punches should be the winner of that round. The only way the person with less connecting attacks would win would be if those 10 punches either dropped his opponent or looked far more devastating. Something I don't think Aldo's were.. rounds 3, 4 & 5 anyway.
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