Marlon Vera Stops Frankie Edgar Late At UFC 268
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Madison Square Garden, New York City tonight, November 6, 2021, for UFC 268, headlined, and co-headlined by title clash rematches.
Not only are both the main and co-main events rematches for the women’s strawweight and men’s welterweight championships, but each champion is facing the No. 1 contender of their divisions as well.
Those bouts come between UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who faces former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington in the main event, just after UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas looks to defend her title against former strawweight champion Weili Zhang, the woman she just took the belt from.
Another note, both of these first fights ended via knockout.
Our feature bout tonight came between ranked bantamweight contenders Marlon Vera and former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
Continue reading to see how this epic clash went down:
Official Result: Marlon Vera def. Frankie Edgar via KO (front kick) at 3:50 of round three
Round 1
Edgar starts out round one looking like his old self, landing the last punch on most of his crisp combinations, making it difficult for Vera to counter back. He then shoots a takedown, which Vera stuffs, before Edgar secures his next attempt.
Edgar stays in Vera’s guard reigning down some nice elbows.
This has been a very good round for the former champion. Ya know, what’s crazy is the fact that Edgar was a champion at lightweight, 155 lbs. He’s now fighting at 135 lbs against a natural 135er, and the natural 135er is bigger than him.
Round 2
It seems as if Vera is waiting on Edgar to go first, which isn’t working out for him too well on the feet, or on the ground, as he’s taken down again about one minute into round two.
But, Vera’s able to get up toward the middle of the round and wins the rest of the round with his striking. He landed a nice knee off the half-clinch, as well as a nice flying knee up the middle that dropped Edgar momentarily.
This was followed up by a short barrage of punches, though Edgar’s already recovered.
Vera did end the round hurting Edgar badly with an elbow however, It appears it’s 1-1 going into three.
Round 3
Vera comes out with a real sense of urgency and gets right back to where he left off with his striking.
Merely everything he throws has a load of intent behind it, though Edgar’s battling back and throwing his own combinations still.
Vera then catches Edgar with a nasty front kick to the chin and that was all she wrote.
We all knew coming into this fight, Edgar’s a fast starter, and Vera’s a slow starter. Then once it started, we saw the fast started with the first half of the fight, and the slow starter win the second half of the fight, and secure a vicious finish.
Marlon Vera is for real! Who should he face next?
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