High praise coming from the UFC head honcho towards Frankie Edgar. Dana White puts Anderson Silva the top of the heap for pound for pound rankings, then Edgar, followed by UFC welterweight champ Georges St Pierre.

There’s so many fighters striving to fight for the UFC lightweight strap that it’s definitely a shame that there’s a backlog in this division due to no resolution for this fight. But strange things happen–like draws and both main event fighters getting injured in a span of around 24 hours.
Frankie Edgar versus Gray Maynard was suppose to be resolved on the first day of this year, but after their draw, Maynard was understandably given another crack at the belt. Their bout at UFC 130 was suppose to settle the debate once and for all, but both fighters unfortunately have been sidelined and it’s real indefinite when they can be healed up and set to scrap against one another again.

In the mean time, two other matchups in the lightweight division will decide who will get a go at the lightweight gold after Gray Maynard does. The first fight being a very intriguing tilt between Clay Guida and Anthony “Showtime” Pettis. “Showtime” has been the victim of some bad luck in this whole lightweight drama. He was promised the title shot after the January 1st fight between Maynard and Edgar, but since the fight had no victor, he was forced to sit on the sidelines and wait until the dust settled between those two and an eventual winner was found. Nonetheless, Pettis is willing to fight in the mean time, and has a tough test to handle in Clay Guida. In his last bout against Takanori Gomi, Guida looked fantastic by using a lot of movement on the feet, picking his spots, driving in for takedowns and scoring the choke to get the “W”. Pettis has always been a great fighter but now his whole career has been defined by one impromptu kick off the cage which smacked the dome of Ben Henderson and dropped the former WEC lightweight champ. Pettis certainly has a lot more to offer than Hollywood stunt scenes in the Octagon, and the winner of him and Guida will more than likely getting a shot at the UFC lightweight belt when the two square off on June 4th at the The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale.

The other key matchup in the lightweight division would be American 155ers Ben Henderson and Jim Miller tangling at UFC on Versus 5 on August 14th. It’s another very close fight that could go either way. Both fighters have a large toolbox of tricks and have tremendous mental fortitude in doing all it takes to impose their will on their opponents. Ben “Smooth” Henderson does transition extremely well no matter where the fight goes and appears be more adaptable to every situation. But looking at Jim Miller’s last fight, where he used some solid boxing and scored his first TKO via strikes in the UFC shows that he has become a lot more effective in his striking execution. The winner of this contest would likely be 2nd in line contend for the lightweight title. Definitely if Miller can pull off the victory, that’d be 8 straight wins in the UFC, which a very notable accomplishment. Because of his low-key and unassuming demeanor, Miller has quietly accomplished the task. Much like Jon Fitch silently racked up 8 victories over the course of 2005 and 2008, which finally earned him a title shot. Miller seems to be taking a similar path as Fitch.