John Maguire made his UFC debut a successful one by outgrappling Justin Edwards for three rounds at UFC 138.
UFC 138 results: John Maguire defeats Justin Edwards by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
In the first round Edwards came out early throwing inside leg kicks. The third inside leg kick went a little high and forced Maguire to take a break after catching a groin kick. Edwards pounced on the restart and appeared to have Maguire hurt with a spinning back kick to the body followed by an overhand right that dropped Maguire. Maguire survived the blitz and managed to turn the rest of the fight into a pretty involved and interesting grappling bout where Maguire seemed to have a skill advantage.
In the second, Edwards seemed to have the standing edge but landed nothing huge in the first two minutes of the round. Maguire managed to close the distance around the 3 minute mark and slammed Edwards to the ground. He immediately threatened with a rear naked choke attempt but Edwards fended off the attack through an extended battle for hand control. Maguire switched to an arm bar attempt just before the bell rang to end the round.
In the third round Maguire managed to take Edwards down with a single leg attempt. Edwards managed to reverse things with a leg lock attempt. That resulted in a tangle when Maguire went for a leg lock of his own. Edwards got back to his feet but it wasn't long before Maguire initiated another grappling exchange and soon ended up on top in side control. Edwards made the mistake of going for a guillotine and Maguire pounced on his mistake. Maguire got full mount then Edwards gave his back. Edwards managed to escape and get back to his feet with 30 seconds left and ended the fight working for a north-south choke.
It was too little too late as the judges liked what they saw from Maguire.