Featherweight should be the only option for Frankie Edgar

“I tell you what Mike, they look like they are at least one weight class apart.”

-Joe Rogan comparing the sizes of Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson

Frankie Edgar is a beast. He’s competed against some of the best lightweights in the world, and more then held his own with them. The in and out style coupled with his superb wrestling skills almost makes him the best 155lb mixed martial artist in the world. However, he often takes on two opponents come fight night. One is whatever top contender is standing across the octagon. The second (and maybe most difficult) is the large weight discrepancy Frankie gives up to said contender. Edgar has done well thus far taking on the big boys, but it’s time for him to take on guys that don’t outweigh him by twenty pounds.

 Frankie landed close to an equal amount of strikes, and took down Ben four or five more times (depending on what stat checking website you believe). It was the force of the strikes landed by Henderson that made the difference on the judges’ score cards though. Even while losing the wrestling battle, Ben was able to let loose with powerful kicks and hard straight shots that did damage to the diminutive champion. Frankie landed his own fair share of hard shots that were punctuated by straight rights and counter left hooks, but the damage to the bigger Henderson didn’t show up as much.

Benson Henderson walked into the octagon weighing close to the middleweight limit of 185lbs Sunday morning in Japan. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. He’s in great shape year-round, and trains his butt off to stay healthy. Cutting weight is as much of a piece of MMA today as strength and conditioning is, and the fighters that do it well get to enjoy an advantage when it comes time to scrap. When a combatant competes in their natural weight class, they are an exception to that rule. We all like to root for the underdog, and the “little guy”. If a fighter comes into a match with an obvious size disadvantage we are automatically invested emotionally. It is nothing short of impressive when a competitor takes down somebody thought to possess the same amount of skill while also giving up mass. That has become common place whenever Frankie competes.

Frankie has beaten BJ Penn, Sean Sherk, Gray Maynard, Jim Miller, and Mark Bocek. All of those guys are ranked in the top ten, or were at some point of their careers. Edgar is a top tier lightweight. He has the skill set to beat any guy in that division on a good night. His speed is stellar, his wrestling is up there with the best in MMA, his grappling is good enough to hang with BJ on the ground (Google BJ Penn and BJJ if you don’t know why that’s impressive), and his will to win might just be the greatest in mixed martial arts. There’s just no need for him to give up so much size in the UFC anymore. Featherweight was not an option for Frankie to fight at when he entered the UFC, but it is now.

Imagine what he could do against guys his own size.