Gray Maynard: I thought I won the fight
After a dominant first round and four closely contested rounds after it, Gray Maynard was sure he had posted his…
After a dominant first round and four closely contested rounds after it, Gray Maynard was sure he had posted his second win over Frankie Edgar and taken his UFC lightweight championship.
“I thought it was mine,” a dejected Maynard said. “I thought I had the belt.”
“He’s a tough kid. Hat’s off to him, but I thought that was my fight.”
“You’ve got the round where it could have been 10-7, I thought. I dropped him like five times. He didn’t land a punch. At least a 10-8, maybe even more.”
“I thought I won the third, for sure. The last round, we landed about even. I was going hard in the last, and I thought he backed up a lot. I shot, shot, shot.”
“It’s not about the money. I’ve been doing this since I was 3. It’s about being on top.”
“The first shot I rocked him with and he was wobbled, I thought it was over,” Maynard began. “I thought ‘Oh my God, I’m the lightweight champ’ in the first round. Once he started to grab on to my leg and looked to survive I knew that I could either slow down, start to pick my shots or I could swing for the fences and finish him. I said ‘F— it’ and went for the finish. I thought it was pretty close to being stopped. Frankie did a good job at staying around. I felt him go down and I hit him with some big punches. He grabbed onto the fence to pull himself up but I thought there was a good chance to knock him out completely and that’s why I went for it.”
“After the round ended I got up and was flushed because that was a fast pace right off the bat. You have to have a pace and I just didn’t expect things to go down that quickly … In my case I was definitely in tip-top condition for this fight and after how hectic the first round was I needed to regroup and regain my composure. That is what I did in the second round.”
“I knew after the first round that it was going to be a five round fight. After he took those hard shots and managed to get his bearings back I needed to adjust. Rounds two through five I had to get my legs back under me and I just didn’t feel the snap or turnover in my punches. I felt good and knew I could still fight hard but I didn’t feel as sharp and my feet were a little flat. There were just some small adjustments that needed to be made and had I not gone through all of that activity in the first I could have been more crisp.”
“There was never any question in my mind that I could fight a hard five rounder. The only issue I had was the pace of the first round. He was in trouble and I had a bit of an adrenaline dump trying to finish it but that was something I just had to adjust to. I knew I could fight five rounds. I could have fought ten rounds if that’s what it took but with such a high output in the first round I needed to regroup. There was no feeling out period between us. Normally when you see two guys fight the first minute or two is spent posturing and maneuvering but that didn’t happen in with us. I hit him with that shot that dropped him and we went from there.”