Edgar survives 3-round war to win unanimous decision over Stephens

You can knock Frankie Edgar down, but keeping him there is another story altogether.

Jeremy "Lil' Heathen" Stephens found this out the hard way on Saturday at UFC 205 in New York City when he failed to finish Edgar and eventually dropped a unanimous decision to the former featherweight champion.

The win was one of the most hard-fought of Edgar's career as he was rocked by a stiff knee in Round 2 that had him on wobbly legs for the remainder of the frame. However, the New Jersey-native reached into his bag of tricks to out-strike and out-wrestle Stephens to earn the 15th win of his UFC career.

With the win, Edgar bounces back from a unanimous decision loss at UFC 200 against Jose Aldo.

Stephens shrugged off Edgar's takedowns in the opening minutes, forcing "The Answer" to change strategies midway through the first round and switch back to his well-worn stick-and-move style. That strategy paid off in the second when Edgar was able to shoot in to bring Stephens down to the mat.

Edgar then survived a knockout scare and went back to his wrestling to control the contest, threatening with a guillotine submission and scoring points with ground-and-pound. A game Stephens fought off Edgar's finishing attempts, but couldn't get back on the offensive in time to avoid the decision loss.

Stephens has now alternated wins and losses in his past five contests. In his last outing, he defeated former bantamweight champion Renan Barao by unanimous decision.

At 12-12, Stephens is the first UFC fighter with a dozen wins and a dozen losses inside the Octagon and he now owns the most losses in promotional history.