ChuteBoxe's MMA Play of the Year *The Ultimate Fighter: Season 10 Finale TONIGHT*
Let me start off by saying, I know him personally, our parents went to high school together. Which, also means I know a lot about his camp, and the preparation for this fight. He has a top notch boxing coach in Mark Henry, attends a great Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school with Ricardo Almeida, whom is arguably one of the top 10 in the business, and he trains his wrestling with Steve Rivera. He also gets extra mat time as an assistant wrestling coach for Rutgers University.
Frankie Edgar was originally supposed to fight Kurt Pellegrino tonight in The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale, which would've been a way tougher contest for him (FWIW, I had him winning that fight as well). Unfortunately, Pellegrino had to withdraw due to a bad back injury. Taking his place is Matt Veach, who made his UFC debut at Fight Night: Lauzon vs. Stephens, back in February with an impressive TKO victory over Matt Grice. While Veach might be new to the UFC, he's not new to MMA, and is a decent up and comer in this sport. He's definitely worked hard on short notice, and looks to impress in this spot as the big underdog. He trains with a good team in the H.I.T Squad, and was a decent high school wrestler.
Unfortunately for Mr. Veach, taking this fight on short notice was not an intelligent move on his part to move onto 12-0, and win his second consecutive UFC fight. Frank is prepared to both stand up and bang, or take this fight to the ground. He has far superior standup, and way better wrestling skills. Not to mention, is quickly moving up the BJJ ranks, and currently holds a purple belt. Frankie is the all around fighter, and the new man to beat at 155.
Frankie has fought way better opponents in his move up the ladder in the UFC. Going against, and successfully beating, most recently, ex UFC Champion Sean Sherk, ex WEC Champ Hermes Franca, Spencer Fisher, and Tyson Griffin. His only loss came against Gray Maynard, which was just a bad matchup for him. Maynard was a world renowned NCAA Division 1 All-American wrestler, who currently trains with Randy Couture, and basically controlled "The Answer" for most of the fight. It was wrestler vs. wrestler, and the better wrestler won. Pretty simple. After the heartbreaking loss, Frank answered back against Hermes Franca. Franca, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, and ex WEC Lightweight Champion was no match for Mr. Edgar. Frankie then went on to beat another ex champion in Sean Sherk rather easily as well.
As everyone knows, this is fighting, and anything can happen. (For instance, in my last play of the year, which wasn't as large as this, my fighter broke his hand in the first round, shit happens) However, I feel this is a great position and basically a warmup fight for Frankie. He's in the best shape of his life. His boxing, wrestling, his bjj, his strength, and conditioning are all top notch at this point of his career. (for instance, he rolled 5 consecutive 5 min rounds, with a new partner each round, and submitted all 5 at least once early in the week.)
To go even further into the psych of Frankie Edgar, everything's going great in his life. He got married to his wife Renee, just had a beautiful son Francesco, his father's plumbing business is doing great even in the poor economy, and with a quick and impressive victory, could be looking at a shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship against the winner of the BJ Penn/Diego Sanchez fight.
I know most people can't swallow this kind of chalk, and trust me, I'm not a fan of it either. However, I'm extremely confident this play will win. If you can parlay MMA fights at your book, it's worth junking together with some of your football plays this afternoon, or even taking straight up. This will be my largest play of the year. Good luck on this if you decide to take it, and the rest of your plays this weekend. Thanks for reading.
Frank Edgar (-500)
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Originally Posted by Robyn
