Words that Edgar should think about

So I was watching ufc insider on ufc.com today and one of the questions that was brought up for dana white was who would he like to see change weight classes. He made a surprising (to me) pick of saying Frankie Edgar. Not to say that this hasn't been beaten to death that Frankie is a small LW but considering he was talking about the superfight of Anderson Silva vs GSP that he didn't mention anyone else. Which brings me to these conclusions 1. yes Edgar is a small LW but I mean he's the champ! why would you mess with a good thing? He's also considered to be the top LW in the world right now as well so why give that up? 2. Here's why I think Edgar should drop, he really does have the potential to not only capture the 145 title but simultaneously have and defend both of them. I mean they talk about this with Anderson and him capturing the LHW belt, but I actually think that because of Edgar's size and speed he really could pull this off. Now there is the question of a man named Jose Aldo, but I think Frankie has the tools to pull it off, he's super fast, tonnes of cardio, and he's got great wrestling. This could lead to him taking the belt from Jose. So I hope he really is considering this to cement his legacy in mma history 

That would be amazing and the best part of it is that's he's 23! he's got tonnes of time to make all of these wonderful ideas and dreams come true, and I for one will be one happy man to watch each and every one of his fights, starting with UFC 129 in Toronto where I will get to watch him personally :D

i think edgar should cut to 145 and he will probably domiante!

I actually disagree KOKID, but please don't beat me up.  lol.

I think Edgar is actually doing so well at LW because he is so mobile and light on his feet.  He is able to out strike his opponents and close the distance faster than his opponents due to his speed.  I think if he moves down to 145, those guys are going to be much quicker and possibly quicker than Frank Edgar, so he would lose his primary tool that got him the LW belt, his speed.  I think it would come down more to technique and guys like Aldo, Hominick, etc. will be able to present some possible problems.  I say stay at 155 until his style stops working.  He basically just beat the biggest LW the UFC pretty much has, Gray Maynard.

Also, from a business perspective, say Edgar starts losing to the point he would get cut, THEN he could always go down to FW and have that "1 more shot" type thing ya know...

Tanner I like your business perspective for Frankie, that would definitely be good for him, but the thing you'd have to think, by the time that this happens would frankie's body be able to cut down to 145. As we were saying before in this forum Frankie is pretty solid at 155, not big, but he has put on muscle mass, so it may be hard to cut that down to FW

@lilspyder thats a great card to get to go watch! I got to see Aldo's last defense in the WEC in person...@team tanner i didn't see edgar beat maynard in their fight...I saw maynard cost himself the belt by trying to finish frankie...I get why guys throw punches non-stop when they have a guy hurt and on the ground, but i'm big on in that situation go ahead and back out and make the ref stand him back up they're not gonna let the guy just lay there he's gonna get stood back up and he's gonna be on wobbly legs or he doesn't get up and the fight is stopped.  

Soccerkick your saying you'd be a huge fan of anderson silva's fight with forrest griffin or frank mir's fight with big nog then? both fights the winner had knocked down their opponent but then let them back up and did it again.

Actually I had put an example of Mir vs. Big Nog, but then deleted it from my comment!

LOL well then that's what i call a mind meld. For sure though they were the best examples to draw from because they followed that particular game plan perfectly.

I'm gonna retract my statement of saying Frankie is too small, I think BJ has actually stole some of Frankie's strategy, a few fighters recently have said cutting weight affects your performance more than you would think. I think the reason he is so good at LW is because most guys are starving and focusing on their diet as much or more than they train technique and conditioning while he can just eat healthy and focus solely on technique, gameplan and conditioning. I find myself training so much harder when I just eat healthy and don't have to restrict water or calories. There is no way your body can perform at 100% when you cut 20lbs the week leading up to a fight. Maybe Frankie has began the trend of fighters fighting at their natural weight.

Very interesting theory caymanfighter but what do you say about japanese fighters? I mean most of them fight around their natural weight and don't seem to perform as well, because their opponents are so much bigger than them at fight time. Or is it more because they aren't getting the highest quality of training? (and i will say this to japanese fighters fighting in Japan not those that have to travel to the states I can easily see how jetlag will play into that)

Damn @lilspyder we have the same thought process yet again!

These things happen

Very true Spider. I do think it has more to do with the decline in quality of Japanese MMA too. Aikiyama should consider moving to 170 but Okami is a huge MW.

This is true, I think Okami really understood that in order for him to be competitive he needed to be able to cut down a class in order to fight.

spyder, I dont believe Okami ever fought at a higher weight then middle weight. In fact i believe he moved up a weight class from welter weight.

Franklin I was never saying that he did fight at a higher weight, what I was trying to say was that he was smart from the get go by not competing at LHW. Now with that information that he fought at WW that is impressive, and I just looked it up and he fought at 175 at Rumble on the Rock where he beat Anderson and got beat by Jake Shields. All I can say is that that must have been a huge cut for both Yushin and Anderson although that was five years ago so that's a long time to put on more mass for sure