Regardless of what you may think of the judging in the fight, this is one well-earned hero's welcome for Frankie Edgar in Toms River, New Jersey, via the Asbury Park Press:

TOMS RIVER - The township's emergency vehicles escorted Ultimate Fighting champion Frankie Edgar back home Sunday night, police said.

Police Chief Michael G. Mastronardy said police cars, fire trucks and ambulances met Edgar's vehicle near Parkway Exit 82 about 8 p.m., and escorted him home with sirens blaring. They stopped first at the Toms River Shopping Center, where
roughly 150 people waited to greet him. Edgar was expected to return here about two hours earlier but got delayed at customs, the chief said.

As Jim Genia said:

This is pure awesomeness on so many levels, especially since you don't get more homegrown than Edgar. He literally worked his way up from the UCL to Sportfighting, Reality Fighting and Ring of Combat to the UFC, and though everyone who ever sat ringside for one of his local bouts knew he was a stud, the idea that he'd be able to dethrone the legendary BJ Penn seemed like a longshot at best. Bravo, Frankie. Bravo.

Couldn't agree more. While I scored the fight for B.J., I'm not that upset about the bad scoring because Frankie was clearly the better man by the end of the fight. While I'm somewhat acclimated to our modern MMA scoring, I still oppose the 10 point must system and prefer that fights be judged in their totality. Clearly Edgar was the better man on Saturday.

If you had told me on Saturday morning that Edgar would keep the fight close enough that it would go to decision, I would've laughed in your face. But Frankie fought the perfect fight and threw B.J. Penn off his game. Congratulations Frankie, enjoy your moment in the sun, but don't let it go to your head, the UFC lightweight division is a shark tank and they smell blood in the water.