Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard were the talk of the UFC at one point as they were involved in a legendary trilogy that is still highly regarded to this day. In light of the New Jersey native’s upcoming UFC Hall of Fame induction, let us look back at one of the most memorable rivalries in the promotion’s history.

The first fight took place in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 13 in 2008, which was well before either of them were top contenders in the lightweight division. ‘The Bully’ (5-0 (1)) overpowered ‘The Answer’ (9-0) and cruised to a unanimous decision win after all three judges scored the 30-27 in his favor. It was the New Jersey native’s first career loss and served as a valuable lesson on areas in which he needed to improve if he wanted to achieve success at 155lbs.

When they met in the octagon the second time, there was a lot more at stake as they were now competing for the UFC lightweight championship. A lot had changed since their first encounter as Edgar (14-1) was the reigning lightweight champion after shocking the MMA world with back-to-back wins over BJ Penn.

Meanwhile, the Arizona native was still unbeaten (10-0 (1)) and coming off an impressive unanimous decision win over Kenny Florian in a title eliminator bout. This time, the New Jersey native was looking to avenge his lone career loss and prove that he had grown leaps and bounds as a fighter.

The talented lightweights were set to collide in a main event title fight as the promotion kicked off 2011 with their New Year’s Day pay-per-view UFC 125: Resolution.

It appeared as though Maynard was closing in on becoming the new lightweight champion as he dropped Edgar and immediately pounced on him and was hellbent on finishing him off. The referee gave every opportunity for the champion to defend himself and was very lenient, especially by today’s standards as the fight would likely be stopped had it taken place in 2024.

The champion’s resilience was on full display as he survived the early onslaught and eventually regrouped in the second round, where he slammed the challenger. Fans ended up witnessing something straight out of the Rocky franchise as they went the distance. After the 5-round battle, the judges ruled the bout a split-draw, and so the UFC turned their attention to booking an immediate trilogy.

The trilogy bout took place later that year in the main event of UFC 136 and definitely lived up to the hype. Similar to the rematch, Maynard stunned Edgard and swarmed him with punches, but was unable to finish him.

The lightweight champion began to find a lot more success with his combinations as the fight progressed and finally found openings. He managed to connect with powerful strikes, which certainly provided a boost of confidence.

Unlike the previous bouts, the judges scorecards weren’t required as Edgar stunned Maynard with an uppercut before dropping him with a number of right hooks against the cage, and finished him with ground strikes to earn a fourth round TKO win.

With the win, ‘The Answer’ avenged his lone career loss and successfully retained his lightweight championship. Edgar’s TKO win over Maynard was so impressive that Dana White went as far as claiming that he was the No.2 pound-for-pound fighter in the world behind only then UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

‘The Answer’s incredible win against a larger opponent was just one of many examples for why he is more than deserving of his upcoming UFC Hall of Fame induction.