UFC
UFC on FX 4's Gray Maynard in rebuilding mode in 2012, still wants fourth fight with Frankie Edgar
Mar 25, 2012 - 4:00:03 PM UFC on FX 4's Gray Maynard in rebuilding mode in 2012, still wants fourth fight with Frankie Edgar

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Gray Maynard finally reached the top of the UFC's lightweight division at the start of 2011, getting his first shot at the UFC Lightweight Championship against a man he had beaten once in his career, Frankie Edgar. But after failing to put Edgar away in consecutive fights, leading to a draw and a fourth round TKO loss, respectively, his 2012 campaign will begin in an altogether different place.

"Last year, I hit a plateau – I really did," Maynard said in an interview with Duane Finley at HeavyMMA. "Now it's time to learn, and there is a lot of work to do. It's not like I changed camps and it's suddenly I'm leaps and bounds ahead of where I was. I have a lot to learn, but I'm excited and inspired again to do it. As far as jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai, those things are just scratching the surface. There are so many other aspects and elements to refine or develop, like nutrition, sleep and recovery, which directly affect your performance. At the end of the day, those areas are relatively untouched and there is still so much to learn."

Maynard's been traveling around after leaving his longtime home at Xtreme Couture, and he's taken time to work with Nova Uniao in Brazil, as well as the American Kickboxing Academy in California. Those have been beneficial experiences for him to this point, and he made it clear he's still got plenty to learn moving forward in his career.

"I'm at a point in my career where I'm assessing everything I've learned. Obviously I've picked up a ton of useful information along the way, but I've also learned a great deal about what you shouldn't do. It's an awesome thing when you know who you are, how to train and what works best for you. I've been through it all and how you get to the top is realizing what you can and can't do."

Maynard will square off with Clay Guida this summer in the main event of UFC on FX 4, and as the rest of the division is in a bit of a holding pattern with yet another rematch for the title forthcoming, both will be looking to plug themselves back into the veritable mix.

"The lightweight division is like a drama," Maynard said. "It is like a good soap opera that draws you in because it's not built up off bulls**t hype. There is no fake build-up where guys are talking a bunch of s**t in order to get fan's attention. It's all in the actual fights people are seeing, and it is the most competitive weight class in the UFC, hands down. The skill and heart displayed in our division is without comparison. We go out there, put it all on the line and get after it from bell to bell."

Maynard hopes his own skill and heart will bring him back to a third shot at the UFC Lightweight Title, and also hopes to face Edgar one more time before the two call it a career.

"The title has always been the goal," he said. "I would love to have the belt and somewhere along the line, get another fight with Edgar. We are 1-1-1 and we need to settle it once and for all. It has to happen eventually, and after that fight we can both be done. We can walk away knowing it's over and that we gave MMA fans some great fights to look back on."

Penick's Analysis: Maynard had a number of less than thrilling fights before his two-fight series with Edgar in 2011, and both of those raised his profile considerably. He did some very good things in each bout, particularly early on, but was unable to sustain that offense and that pressure, leading to him failing to win either fight. Still, switching up his camps and looking to expand his horizons in training is only going to improve his game overall, and if he's able to implement newly learned things into his bag of tricks, he should be able to work his way back up the ladder rather quickly.