FanHouse Frank Edgar

The lightweight division in mixed martial arts consists of B.J. Penn and everyone else.

We all know that Penn, the UFC champion, has established himself as the top lightweight in the sport. But after Penn, there are about a dozen guys who are practically interchangeable. That list includes UFC fighters like Penn's next opponent (Diego Sanchez), his last opponent (Kenny Florian), and some past and future UFC opponents like Gray Maynard, Frank Edgar and Sean Sherk.

In B.J. Penn's seven fights since returning to the UFC in 2006, he's 4-3. That record doesn't even come close to telling the story of Penn, the most dominant lightweight fighter in MMA history.

It was a big weekend for the lightweights in MMA, with Eddie Alvarez winning the Bellator lightweight tournament on Friday night (above) and Diego Sanchez beating Clay Guida by split decision in a fight of the year candidate Saturday at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.

So what's next for Alvarez and Sanchez? Bellator will have to work hard to attract some top-notch lightweights to challenge Alvarez in their second season (I'm hoping they sign Joachim Hansen), while Sanchez thinks he's earned a shot at the UFC lightweight belt (but I think he should fight Gray Maynard first). My list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA is below.

After a weekend in mixed martial arts that saw big lightweight fights in both the UFC and Dream, it's time to revise our list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA. Frank Edgar is new on our list after his impressive UFC 98 win over Sean Sherk, while Gesias "JZ Calvan" Cavalcante has dropped off the list after a disappointing loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dream 9. The full Top 10 is below.

How big a surprise was Frank Edgar's victory over Sean Sherk at UFC 98? So big that UFC President Dana White thought it was impossible.

The light heavyweight division is the most talented weight class in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but after watching Lyoto Machida dominate Rashad Evans for the title Saturday night at UFC 98, I'm having a very hard time seeing how anyone is going to beat him any time soon.

That might sound like a crazy thing to say, because upsets happen all the time in mixed martial arts, and the light heavyweight title has changed hands four times in the last two years. But the fundamental way to win a fight is to hurt your opponent without getting hurt yourself, and there's no one better at that than Machida.

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Welcome to the FanHouse UFC 98 live blog. This is where we'll provide, live, round-by-round updates of the three big undercard fights: Xavier Foupa-Pokam vs. Drew McFedries, Dan Miller vs. Chael Sonnen and Frank Edgar vs. Sean Sherk.

When the undercard live blog is over you'll want to head over to our live blog of the co-main event between Matt Serra and Matt Hughes, and then to our live blog of the main event between Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida. The pay-per-view broadcast and the live blog begin below at 10 PM ET.

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Former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk has always been known as a workout freak, and in the above video he goes through some amazing exercises to get himself ready for his fight with Frank Edgar at UFC 98. For anyone who's interested in either MMA or working out, it's incredible to see what Sherk puts himself through -- including cardio exercises while wearing a gas mask -- to prepare for his fights.

All indications are that the Ultimate Fighting Championship will continue its usual practice of putting on huge shows Memorial Day Weekend, with the heavyweight title unification fight between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir taking place at UFC 98 on May 23.