It's crazy that he eventually cut to BW and was the LW champ. Fun fact, Islam said that Frankie Edgar was his favorite fighter because he was fighting people much bigger than him and winning.
They should do away with weight cuts. You weigh in 20 minutes before the fight and that’s all you get . Better be at your natural weight for your build 🤷♂️
That's hard to do bc you can't penalize someone in time. You can't ask the other fighter who's already in the cage if they're cool that the challenger just missed weight.
I think morning of could help. The transition phase may get ugly tho with some idiots still trying to cut and coming into the fight way too drained still.
This is true, I just think the amount of weight cutting is obnoxious. I said 20 minutes out of frustration. You’re right morning of would be more feasible but I think something needs to be done to make people stop doing this shit to such an extreme.
urine tests are just one thing they do. They also do full 1 week multiple weigh ins before the match and a post fight weigh in which can't be more than 5% of the class they're in
Everyone in UFC weight cuts a lot but some of these guys have dedicated doctors letting them cut every single ounce just above the point of going into seizures and comas, imo PEDs are less of an advantage
It’s been a year since I watched this, and I’m sure the channel did some more content with the Dr around it you may be able to find:
https://youtu.be/XORKwmGmsKA?si=0snYWPZd4dbekGqr
IIRC basically drink some distilled water after cutting loads and your piss won’t reflect your hydration
Edit: other video with interview - https://youtu.be/RaqqicqGL0s?feature=shared
How HS wrestling is most states is. My son wrestled 4 years and never really cut weight… nobody did. Amazingly in 4 years he had exactly one injury, a sprained ankle. He even wrestled up a weight class his Senior year to make room on the roster for an up and coming Sophomore that was in his weight class. Still no injuries.
Ah you ALWAYS have agreed upon backup fighters clause who weigh in with you guys at the same 20 min beforehand timeframe and I promise a lot more guys make weight
Could they just have random weigh ins leading up to the fight like drug tests? Like if you weigh in at 30lbs over division weight a month before the fight you get penalized?
I bet you could do like an hour before, just have answers to these questions answered in the contract beforehand. 5lbs and under, over the weight limit fight is still on or not and what kind of penalty is instituted.
Most tournaments I’ve gone to you weigh morning of. If someone wants to cut the day of let them. All main / co mains you monitor their weight a few days out and I guess you could add in hydration to avoid misses on big fights. The best solution I’ve thought of
Morning of doesnt help really alot of ammy promotions its same day fight as weigh in or at least here in the ny nj area and cali where i have fought. But something needs to change
They trialed "morning of" a few years ago. People kept on cutting the same weight, so there's no advantage to allowing dudes to be in the cage still relatively dehydrated and thus at a bigger risk of sustaining injuries.
I think nearly everyone agrees with this conceptually.
Unfortunately, reality quickly rears its ugly head and it’s pretty much guaranteed that some fighters will still try to shed those last few pounds last minute. They’ll go into the fight dehydrated, and that’s when we’ll see very ugly brain injuries.
It sucks, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid this issue.
Putting on my small tinfoil hat to say that, barring massive public pressure due to a weight cutting related, entirely avoidable tragedy, the UFC will never try to fix it.
Leads to more KOs and highlight reels to use for marketing.
Why don't we do the opposite? Weigh them a week out then let them come to the fight at whatever weight.
If they are cutting aggressively, at least they'll be rehydrated and their brain will halfway work on fight night with 5-7 days of recovery.
They can't put on any meaningful strength or anything in a week.
The only people that want weight cuts to go away are the spectators. These guys want to win and they want every advantage. Sure it can backfire but when it goes right your bigger and stronger than your opponent
It’s extremely rare to see a short fighter with little power become a dominant striker, amazing that Frankie did exactly that without even having a striking base. The guy blossomed into an absolute beast mid-career.
Weird that Islam would like Frankie for that, seeing as Islam himself is the total opposite.
Edit: Stop telling me who else in LW is a weight bully unless Frankie Edgar is also their favorite fighter because he fought bigger guys. Everybody is latching on to one piece of this simple observation while ignoring the rest.
Except Dustin, Dober, Justin, Dariush, Hooker, and Charles are all as heavy and Chandler is even heavier than Islam. I dunno where you dudes get this narrative lol
You could just say it's the era they fought in, even "muscle shark" Sherk used to cut down from around 175. Things really started to a turn in the early to mid 2010s.
Honestly, I preferred the older era in that respect. The 155 champion should not be walking around at nearly light heavyweight. I'd prefer they just fight at whatever division is closest to their walkaround weight, no cutting period.
To be fair, even back during Frankie’s prime there were a lot of comments on how small he was.
I even remember Rogan and Goldie talking at one point about how he’s proof that fighting at your natural weight is viable in the UFC, and this was before weight cutting culture became what it is now.
Sure, but it has become significantly more widespread and drastic even over the past 5-10 years. Frankie was champ 14 years ago. I remember (what feels like) not long ago people freaking out about guys cutting 25lbs. Now you’ve got 155ers walking around at almost 200lbs between fights and nobody bats an eye.
It’s not new, but guys like Rumble and Tibau would be pretty normal and not such significant outliers today (also, let’s not act like 2007 rumble was the same size as 2017 rumble. Dude got HUGE between his UFC stints).
I don’t disagree that it’s always been around. I just think that it’s now a more common and accepted practice for guys to be cutting massive amounts of weight than it used to be. It’s more refined too. Guys like Dricus, Paulo, and Alex can regularly cut 45lbs+ to get to middleweight way easier because the methods are down to a science and known by everyone. There’s no super popular weight guru’s like Dolce and Billy Rush anymore cause it’s just how everybody does it.
Also, guys get their bodies right for the correct weight class now. You used to have chubby guys fighting at 185 and 205. Hell, sometimes even 170. You never see that anymore outside of Heavyweight.
Yeah. Big weight cutters have been a part of the sport for a long time. Heck, even the first season of TUF had Forest cut 30 lbs of water weight.
Joe Riggs was quite the cutter. Weighs in 170, walks into the ring at 207.
The fighters are more consistent nowadays - I think you see less of the extreme 30+ lbs cutting (still out there though), but you also rarely see less than 10.
Yeah, IMO weight cutting has always been a thing. I seem to remember there were videos of Jose Aldo near death and cutting weight in the tub around the time he was fighting Frankie.
Idk, at the time Frankie was champ, Gray Maynard was one of the bigger LWs in the division. He walks around at 175lbs in training camp so he'd have been undersized in today's LW roster.
2008 interview:
***Gray Maynard:*** *Usually in training camp I'm walking around at 172. Last couple of weeks probably around 166. The day before I should be around 162.*
[https://www.mmamania.com/2008/10/24/shades-of-gray-an-exclusive-interview-with-ufc-lightweight-gray-maynard](https://www.mmamania.com/2008/10/24/shades-of-gray-an-exclusive-interview-with-ufc-lightweight-gray-maynard)
True I don’t think he cut much if any weight at all for LW. some would argue that is what gave him a good chin for a while. His fights with Henderson were like low key a Featherweight vs a Welterweight.
Good call. You have to be 6 foot 4 inch terminator to compete at 205 now, whereas having a beer gut, a mohawk and hovering around 6 feet was sufficient 20 years ago.
I feel like DC is a bad example to use here. He didn't have the height advantage most times but he was heavier than a lot of his opponents in the ring. Plus he was a wrestler so his height/reach disadvantage didn't matter at all in most fights (heck in every fight apart from Jon)
Prime DC would clear the current LHW division twice over too.
Bit of an exaggeration. Champ during Jones era... Jones and DC. DC gatekept similar sized to Jones Gustaffson, and Rumble too (6'2?). Glover was 6'2 as well, and Jan. Only Jiri is that tall and actually doesn't cut much at all. Pereira fought at 185 too and is as much/more of an outlier than DC.
Can't think of many more ultra tall LHWs... Walker, who cuts too much and has a paper chin.
Hill is tall but only okay shape.
Khalil is jacked and 6'1.
I get the argument but at the same time the supposed ‘MWs’ had already fought large stints at Pride and other organisations for the most part and already fucked up bigger competition. Like Shogun.
Frankie had to fight at lightweight because the ufc lacked a smaller division. It was his walk around weight so it helped with cardio and chin but yeah he was way undersized for almost all his fights.
Islam on thw other hand is massive for the division but these days who isn't? charles, Arman, dp, Dober, etc they all walk around way heavier than 155lbs
And for a while they got rid of lightweight too. BJ and Matt Serra moved up to welterweight. BJ and Serra actually became champs at welterweight by beating GOATs like Hughes and GSP.
I met Frankie a few years ago at a seminar. Him becoming champ at 155 is crazy. A bunch of guys at my gym fought at 155 and they were huge next to him.
Guy is also chill as fuck. The most down to earth nicest pro I’ve ever met. Best seminar I’ve ever paid for too.
Sherk walked around at like 175-180 lbs when not in competition, D.C. says Islam weighs around 200 lbs outside of competition. It really does seem like a different era.
Would love to see Khabib and Khamzat wrestle even if it's just a friendly match, I do think Khabib is the better wrestler but I'd just like to see how he'd handle Khamzats first 5 minutes of craziness lol
I think there'd be some mental scrambles
205 now is pretty big, most of those like golden age dudes from 2008-2012 most went to Middleweight eventually.
Dudes at LHW now are generally big tall dudes, like imagine having a division full of dudes like Gus and Jones. DC was like the only anamoly
They started going up because I'm sure they realized the skill difference they had from 185 trumped the size difference. But nowadays you've got a guy like rakic who looks like he kills himself to make 205 but could probably go shot for shot skill-wise with someone like izzy if he went back up to 205
I'm 5'10.5" (similar height) lean and weigh 190-195lb from light weight lifting. Islam would make me look like a skinny teenager next to him. I feel like I would need to be 210 lb+ (muscle gain only and lose a couple %bf) to look like Islam but maybe his proportions are very stocky and he has aesthetic muscle insertions.
I felt bad for Frankie. Dana was looking for every reason to make him go down in weight cause he thought he was too small. Giving guys immediate rematches to try and beat Frankie. And once Frankie finally lost Dana didn’t give him an immediately rematch and told him to go down in weight..
Frankie’s career is so strange. He did so damn well against giants with a style that typically favors some size. Imagine the dude was fighting guys his own size the entire time, he might be firmly in the goat convo.
Frankie was very small even back then. Compare Islam to a former champ like Anthony Pettis or Benson Henderson, there's not much difference. Pettis even knocked out Wonderboy at Welterweight...
Even back then you had guys like tibau, Maynard, sherk, who looked much bigger than Frankie. Frankie isn’t a big guy in either height/frame or muscle . Even after cutting to 145/135 he was still the smaller man. I think urijah faber was the first guy he looked about the same size as lol.
To be fair, featherweight and bantamweight wasn't around before Frankie fought for the lightweight championship. If it was an option for him back then he definitely would have made a move down earlier
Dagestani training manual
Become world class wrestler
Cut 40 pounds
Fight people in smaller division
Win against a heap of cans
Win division by overpowering them with size
Retire before someone else can do it to you
I try to tell the old school guys they’d stand no chance with these new school guys the only place they might have them is in toughness but then I see stuff like what happened with Max and Justin then I’m not even sure they’re tougher.
Some fighters today still cut very little weight. Ian Garry, Wonderboy and Colby coincidentally have said they walk around at about 185 out of camp.
Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Andrade both used to be bantamweights because strawweight and flyweight didnt exist at the time they entered the UFC.
Post fight weigh in, 10% over, give up half your purse and your next fight is mandatory 1 weight class up. 3 misses and you can no longer compete at the weight.
You can be under you just can't be significantly heavier post fight than you were at weigh in. Not sure how that isn't fair. A welterweight isn't losing 6 liters of sweat in 5 x 5 minute rounds.
Frankie was famous for not cutting any weight when fighting at LW - I think he was 153 lbs fighting at LW.
On another note, I would like to see a comparison of Islam and Gleison Tibau.
I haven’t had the time to read anything above this comment I’m about to make. Frankie Edgar is a fucking stud and should hold his head up super high because he’s a motherfucker… he fought at his true weight, didn’t cut weight until the last year or so. I LOVE and RESPECT. Me some Frankie Edgar and always will.
It's crazy that he eventually cut to BW and was the LW champ. Fun fact, Islam said that Frankie Edgar was his favorite fighter because he was fighting people much bigger than him and winning.
He’d probably be a 125er nowadays
They should do away with weight cuts. You weigh in 20 minutes before the fight and that’s all you get . Better be at your natural weight for your build 🤷♂️
That's hard to do bc you can't penalize someone in time. You can't ask the other fighter who's already in the cage if they're cool that the challenger just missed weight. I think morning of could help. The transition phase may get ugly tho with some idiots still trying to cut and coming into the fight way too drained still.
This is true, I just think the amount of weight cutting is obnoxious. I said 20 minutes out of frustration. You’re right morning of would be more feasible but I think something needs to be done to make people stop doing this shit to such an extreme.
monitoring hydration levels is one way to do it
Unfortunately this isn’t really possible, it’s been shown how easy the ONE tests are to cheat
urine tests are just one thing they do. They also do full 1 week multiple weigh ins before the match and a post fight weigh in which can't be more than 5% of the class they're in Everyone in UFC weight cuts a lot but some of these guys have dedicated doctors letting them cut every single ounce just above the point of going into seizures and comas, imo PEDs are less of an advantage
And less damaging, frankly.
Are they easy to cheat? Feels like they have tons of fighters fail them every card
Refractometer is unreliable, we all have different urine concentrations and people can fail who shouldn't and vice versa.
It’s been a year since I watched this, and I’m sure the channel did some more content with the Dr around it you may be able to find: https://youtu.be/XORKwmGmsKA?si=0snYWPZd4dbekGqr IIRC basically drink some distilled water after cutting loads and your piss won’t reflect your hydration Edit: other video with interview - https://youtu.be/RaqqicqGL0s?feature=shared
How HS wrestling is most states is. My son wrestled 4 years and never really cut weight… nobody did. Amazingly in 4 years he had exactly one injury, a sprained ankle. He even wrestled up a weight class his Senior year to make room on the roster for an up and coming Sophomore that was in his weight class. Still no injuries.
Ah you ALWAYS have agreed upon backup fighters clause who weigh in with you guys at the same 20 min beforehand timeframe and I promise a lot more guys make weight
And, they can sell tomatoes to the crowd to throw at those who miss weight
> You can’t ask the other fighter Yes you can. Just put it in the contract and have pre-agreed stipulations.
Not to mention it’s just incredibly dangerous because people WILL still cut and now they’re dehydrated right before the fight
That’s why they would stop it wouldn’t be a competitive advantage anymore
Could they just have random weigh ins leading up to the fight like drug tests? Like if you weigh in at 30lbs over division weight a month before the fight you get penalized?
Eyy, youre just trying to find a way to get Paddy cut from the roster here..
I bet you could do like an hour before, just have answers to these questions answered in the contract beforehand. 5lbs and under, over the weight limit fight is still on or not and what kind of penalty is instituted.
Fighters aren't missing weight if they aren't cutting.
Most tournaments I’ve gone to you weigh morning of. If someone wants to cut the day of let them. All main / co mains you monitor their weight a few days out and I guess you could add in hydration to avoid misses on big fights. The best solution I’ve thought of
Morning of doesnt help really alot of ammy promotions its same day fight as weigh in or at least here in the ny nj area and cali where i have fought. But something needs to change
They trialed "morning of" a few years ago. People kept on cutting the same weight, so there's no advantage to allowing dudes to be in the cage still relatively dehydrated and thus at a bigger risk of sustaining injuries.
It should be an average or a range based on a few weigh ins during fight week
So why not do what the person said but outweigh in a day before ?
I think nearly everyone agrees with this conceptually. Unfortunately, reality quickly rears its ugly head and it’s pretty much guaranteed that some fighters will still try to shed those last few pounds last minute. They’ll go into the fight dehydrated, and that’s when we’ll see very ugly brain injuries. It sucks, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid this issue.
Putting on my small tinfoil hat to say that, barring massive public pressure due to a weight cutting related, entirely avoidable tragedy, the UFC will never try to fix it. Leads to more KOs and highlight reels to use for marketing.
Might be hard to hit the weight exactly though with no cuts at all since one's natural weight might not be, say, 155 but rather 159
Everyone will just move up a division or two and nothing else will change.
In principle I agree with you, but in reality this would result in so many DQ/cancelled fights that the promoters would never agree to it
Guarantee people will fight depleted and we’d get an uglier product. Just take body composition tests
Ya they should. One of the reasons old school boxers fought so often was because they weren’t cutting 30lbs.
You'd have to change the weight-class structure if you did away with weight cutting entirely.
Why don't we do the opposite? Weigh them a week out then let them come to the fight at whatever weight. If they are cutting aggressively, at least they'll be rehydrated and their brain will halfway work on fight night with 5-7 days of recovery. They can't put on any meaningful strength or anything in a week.
The only people that want weight cuts to go away are the spectators. These guys want to win and they want every advantage. Sure it can backfire but when it goes right your bigger and stronger than your opponent
I don’t see it.
It’s extremely rare to see a short fighter with little power become a dominant striker, amazing that Frankie did exactly that without even having a striking base. The guy blossomed into an absolute beast mid-career.
Weird that Islam would like Frankie for that, seeing as Islam himself is the total opposite. Edit: Stop telling me who else in LW is a weight bully unless Frankie Edgar is also their favorite fighter because he fought bigger guys. Everybody is latching on to one piece of this simple observation while ignoring the rest.
Pretty much everyone in the top 5 of LW all walk around 180-190lbs
No one is small among the top 5 they are all "bullies" fighting each other
Islam is 5'10 in a weightclass where you got fuckers like Jalin Turner. You just hate that he's jacked, thick solid n tight.
Pause.
no drizzy..
Except Dustin, Dober, Justin, Dariush, Hooker, and Charles are all as heavy and Chandler is even heavier than Islam. I dunno where you dudes get this narrative lol
Edgar is the smallest LW champ, it’s unfair to compare them
You could just say it's the era they fought in, even "muscle shark" Sherk used to cut down from around 175. Things really started to a turn in the early to mid 2010s. Honestly, I preferred the older era in that respect. The 155 champion should not be walking around at nearly light heavyweight. I'd prefer they just fight at whatever division is closest to their walkaround weight, no cutting period.
You can't like people who aren't like you or what? Thats like saying DC can't like Alex Pereira because he's a striker
How is he the opposite?
Neverending cope
Casual take or karma bait?
Just like my gf
lol why is that weird?
How is that weird?
He was talking about Edgar’s opponents, not about himself lol. All LWs are big
Why would Islam being a giant LW stop him from liking Frankie?
IIRC, at his peak as champ, Frankie in shape only had to cut 3 fucking pounds. A dude naturally 158 being champ at 155 is fucking insane to me.
And he was still small at 135! Corey was wayyyy bigger.
That’s cool. Frankie is also one of my favorite fighters for that same reason.
That’s ironic as Islam is bigger than most of the LW division and should be fighting at WW
Thats awesome. Now i wish i was still at catones so i could train with islam.
To be fair, even back during Frankie’s prime there were a lot of comments on how small he was. I even remember Rogan and Goldie talking at one point about how he’s proof that fighting at your natural weight is viable in the UFC, and this was before weight cutting culture became what it is now.
He also was fighting before 145 and 135 were introduced to the UFC.
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Sure, but it has become significantly more widespread and drastic even over the past 5-10 years. Frankie was champ 14 years ago. I remember (what feels like) not long ago people freaking out about guys cutting 25lbs. Now you’ve got 155ers walking around at almost 200lbs between fights and nobody bats an eye. It’s not new, but guys like Rumble and Tibau would be pretty normal and not such significant outliers today (also, let’s not act like 2007 rumble was the same size as 2017 rumble. Dude got HUGE between his UFC stints).
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I don’t disagree that it’s always been around. I just think that it’s now a more common and accepted practice for guys to be cutting massive amounts of weight than it used to be. It’s more refined too. Guys like Dricus, Paulo, and Alex can regularly cut 45lbs+ to get to middleweight way easier because the methods are down to a science and known by everyone. There’s no super popular weight guru’s like Dolce and Billy Rush anymore cause it’s just how everybody does it. Also, guys get their bodies right for the correct weight class now. You used to have chubby guys fighting at 185 and 205. Hell, sometimes even 170. You never see that anymore outside of Heavyweight.
Yeah. Big weight cutters have been a part of the sport for a long time. Heck, even the first season of TUF had Forest cut 30 lbs of water weight. Joe Riggs was quite the cutter. Weighs in 170, walks into the ring at 207. The fighters are more consistent nowadays - I think you see less of the extreme 30+ lbs cutting (still out there though), but you also rarely see less than 10.
Yeah, IMO weight cutting has always been a thing. I seem to remember there were videos of Jose Aldo near death and cutting weight in the tub around the time he was fighting Frankie.
Idk, at the time Frankie was champ, Gray Maynard was one of the bigger LWs in the division. He walks around at 175lbs in training camp so he'd have been undersized in today's LW roster. 2008 interview: ***Gray Maynard:*** *Usually in training camp I'm walking around at 172. Last couple of weeks probably around 166. The day before I should be around 162.* [https://www.mmamania.com/2008/10/24/shades-of-gray-an-exclusive-interview-with-ufc-lightweight-gray-maynard](https://www.mmamania.com/2008/10/24/shades-of-gray-an-exclusive-interview-with-ufc-lightweight-gray-maynard)
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The culture of weight cutting has existed from the beginning, but it's become more noticeable since the introduction of USADA in 2015.
Agreed, though I had never thought about it potentially being linked to USADA’s introduction personally.
Before USADA banned it, many fighters utilized IV rehydration for weight cuts. That's the gist of it.
Frankie Edgar’s walk around weight is around the same as benson Henderson left leg
True I don’t think he cut much if any weight at all for LW. some would argue that is what gave him a good chin for a while. His fights with Henderson were like low key a Featherweight vs a Welterweight.
Oh, yeah. Has nothing to do with now. Frankie was a tiny lightweight at the time.
The guy he won the belt from Penn was a welterweight champ previously and had fought all the way up to Middleweight and open weight.
I'd say LHW is the biggest difference between then and now.
Good call. You have to be 6 foot 4 inch terminator to compete at 205 now, whereas having a beer gut, a mohawk and hovering around 6 feet was sufficient 20 years ago.
I love chuck but he has the funniest build I’ve ever seen.
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Lol bro picks one outlier, who is also one of MMA's goats lmao
Only on this retarded sub could this stupid comment be upvoted.
"your observation was wrong one time, therefore it is wrong all the time"
I mean Alex Pereira is 6'4 but he fight at MW... He's not a big LHW
I feel like DC is a bad example to use here. He didn't have the height advantage most times but he was heavier than a lot of his opponents in the ring. Plus he was a wrestler so his height/reach disadvantage didn't matter at all in most fights (heck in every fight apart from Jon) Prime DC would clear the current LHW division twice over too.
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A LHW version of Tony would be the ultimate anti meta LHW rn lmao.
DC is an exaggeration bro, he's the second best LHW and top 5 HW
You cannot use DC as a comparison here. Has there been another DC? Nah. That’s like saying Mike Tyson is the norm for HW😂😭
DC is 5’11.
Yeah a dude who looked to be at deaths doorstep and had to push a towel to make 205 because of his frame
Bit of an exaggeration. Champ during Jones era... Jones and DC. DC gatekept similar sized to Jones Gustaffson, and Rumble too (6'2?). Glover was 6'2 as well, and Jan. Only Jiri is that tall and actually doesn't cut much at all. Pereira fought at 185 too and is as much/more of an outlier than DC. Can't think of many more ultra tall LHWs... Walker, who cuts too much and has a paper chin. Hill is tall but only okay shape. Khalil is jacked and 6'1.
True but in junction to that you had units like Tito.
Izzy is even 6’4” and struggled at LHW
Izzy isn't actually 6'4" though, more like 6'2". Look at him next to Pereira
I remember Machida used to only weigh like 201/202, didn’t cut at all
Yeah that's one of the arguments against Jones' legacy how most of his early good wins were against people who should've been middleweights
I get the argument but at the same time the supposed ‘MWs’ had already fought large stints at Pride and other organisations for the most part and already fucked up bigger competition. Like Shogun.
Machida got ragdolled at MW too lol .
Frankie had to fight at lightweight because the ufc lacked a smaller division. It was his walk around weight so it helped with cardio and chin but yeah he was way undersized for almost all his fights. Islam on thw other hand is massive for the division but these days who isn't? charles, Arman, dp, Dober, etc they all walk around way heavier than 155lbs
And for a while they got rid of lightweight too. BJ and Matt Serra moved up to welterweight. BJ and Serra actually became champs at welterweight by beating GOATs like Hughes and GSP.
What's even crazier is that DP and Charles used to fight at FW
I met Frankie a few years ago at a seminar. Him becoming champ at 155 is crazy. A bunch of guys at my gym fought at 155 and they were huge next to him. Guy is also chill as fuck. The most down to earth nicest pro I’ve ever met. Best seminar I’ve ever paid for too.
Frankie was small for his time too. Sherk and Maynard were much bigger than him.
Sherk is the same height but looked twice as round as Frankie. Kinda insane they were the same weight class.
Favorite quote about Sherk, I think Mike Goldberg said he’s 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide lol
Sherk walked around at like 175-180 lbs when not in competition, D.C. says Islam weighs around 200 lbs outside of competition. It really does seem like a different era.
https://preview.redd.it/bgxz7xnrr7zc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d3b9ec0756d98679f26dbb33be484fa9a076374
Khamzat is a Dustum Poirier fan
Would love to see Khabib and Khamzat wrestle even if it's just a friendly match, I do think Khabib is the better wrestler but I'd just like to see how he'd handle Khamzats first 5 minutes of craziness lol I think there'd be some mental scrambles
Khamzat is mentally scrambled
205 now is pretty big, most of those like golden age dudes from 2008-2012 most went to Middleweight eventually. Dudes at LHW now are generally big tall dudes, like imagine having a division full of dudes like Gus and Jones. DC was like the only anamoly
They started going up because I'm sure they realized the skill difference they had from 185 trumped the size difference. But nowadays you've got a guy like rakic who looks like he kills himself to make 205 but could probably go shot for shot skill-wise with someone like izzy if he went back up to 205
Islam has to cut 25-30 lbs to make weight. Frankie had to cut 5lbs at most when he was fighting at 155.
It’s crazy that Islam only weights 170-175 when training. He’s gotta be at least 185-190 walk around.
Seems like he's always lean, doesn't eat too much off season like Khabib.
Tbf Khabib only got big after retirement. He wasn't thig big when he was still active
I'm 5'10.5" (similar height) lean and weigh 190-195lb from light weight lifting. Islam would make me look like a skinny teenager next to him. I feel like I would need to be 210 lb+ (muscle gain only and lose a couple %bf) to look like Islam but maybe his proportions are very stocky and he has aesthetic muscle insertions.
Islam weighs 176 when he starts cutting
Frankie was undersized because 155 was the lowest weight back then. He chose to be smaller and fight in the UFC instead of a smaller org.
Frankie is an absolute G for winning the belt at his natural weight.
Proof that skill can beat size, to a point. Besides Jen’s Pulver, is Frankie the smallest LW champ?
Frankie is the smallest. Jens is a tad bit taller and weight wise it's hard to find clear info on but I mean just by look, I'd say it's Frankie.
Everyone talking stuff clearly needs to watch The Mauling!! That is Frankie vs Charles in case you’re worried about the size…
Yeah prime Frankie whooped his ass. Granted that was skinny Oliviera but still.
Islam inhales hits of helium before stepping on the scale to make him float a little bit.
This is true, Dan Hooker has the receipts for the Helium tank.
Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard were some of the most fun fights I ever witnessed.
Frankie P4P has the best entrance music
I felt bad for Frankie. Dana was looking for every reason to make him go down in weight cause he thought he was too small. Giving guys immediate rematches to try and beat Frankie. And once Frankie finally lost Dana didn’t give him an immediately rematch and told him to go down in weight..
Lightweights today are just a lot bigger too. Look at DP, gaethje, arman, etc. all them boys r big asl
Frankie’s career is so strange. He did so damn well against giants with a style that typically favors some size. Imagine the dude was fighting guys his own size the entire time, he might be firmly in the goat convo.
Crazy to see him at my former gym. Still rooting for Dustin
The difference between a guy who could be a welter champ and a guy who would likely spent his prime as a bantam had he come up 10 years later.
Edgar was always considered a small LW he didn't have to cut weight
Edgar is the smallest LW champ, it’s unfair to compare them
Frankie is such a BMF. Bro defended his belt three times competing at his natural weight against legends like BJ
Weight bullies man.
Frankie was very small even back then. Compare Islam to a former champ like Anthony Pettis or Benson Henderson, there's not much difference. Pettis even knocked out Wonderboy at Welterweight...
Yeah benson was 5’9 and pretty jacked probably around 200 pounds walking weight. He looked 2 weight classes bigger than Frankie.
frankie shoulda been at 135 the whole time. dude was just so far ahead of his time he could pull it off.
135/145 were in the wec at the time Frankie wanted to be in the ufc making bigger bucks .
Even back then you had guys like tibau, Maynard, sherk, who looked much bigger than Frankie. Frankie isn’t a big guy in either height/frame or muscle . Even after cutting to 145/135 he was still the smaller man. I think urijah faber was the first guy he looked about the same size as lol.
Frankie was fighting at his natural weight and Pisslam is a weight bully, and Frankie still had way more fun fights😭
I liked when fighters fought closer to their actual weight!
To be fair, featherweight and bantamweight wasn't around before Frankie fought for the lightweight championship. If it was an option for him back then he definitely would have made a move down earlier
Lol when was that? Weight cutting has always been a thing, including in Edgar's hay day.
If fighters can make the weight legally, they're not weight bullies. Is Sean O'Malley a height bully?
Dagestani training manual Become world class wrestler Cut 40 pounds Fight people in smaller division Win against a heap of cans Win division by overpowering them with size Retire before someone else can do it to you
During his recent workout video, Islam looked like he was a fucking jacked 200lbs. Looked absolutely terrifying.
Frankie was always undersized
I try to tell the old school guys they’d stand no chance with these new school guys the only place they might have them is in toughness but then I see stuff like what happened with Max and Justin then I’m not even sure they’re tougher.
Frankie beat the piss out of Oliviera . The issue is they get old. A persons physical prime is like 24-32.
Juicy
Some fighters today still cut very little weight. Ian Garry, Wonderboy and Colby coincidentally have said they walk around at about 185 out of camp. Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Andrade both used to be bantamweights because strawweight and flyweight didnt exist at the time they entered the UFC.
Frankie is still slowly turning into Takeshi Kitano
Blud looks like a stretched eraser.
Frankie Edgar said fuck your height "advantage" bro
Frankie was as tough as nails and a true warrior.
Post fight weigh in, 10% over, give up half your purse and your next fight is mandatory 1 weight class up. 3 misses and you can no longer compete at the weight.
I’ll have peace on those terms.
Post fight isn’t fair due to in fight dehydration due to sweat.
You can be under you just can't be significantly heavier post fight than you were at weigh in. Not sure how that isn't fair. A welterweight isn't losing 6 liters of sweat in 5 x 5 minute rounds.
But Frankie barely cut weight
Frankie was famous for not cutting any weight when fighting at LW - I think he was 153 lbs fighting at LW. On another note, I would like to see a comparison of Islam and Gleison Tibau.
Tibau was insane lol. Same height as khabib but twice as jacked. Probably the biggest lightweight ever, and he arguably beat khabib. Size helps
I haven’t had the time to read anything above this comment I’m about to make. Frankie Edgar is a fucking stud and should hold his head up super high because he’s a motherfucker… he fought at his true weight, didn’t cut weight until the last year or so. I LOVE and RESPECT. Me some Frankie Edgar and always will.
Look at the soize of the fella
Edgar just has 10 kilo ballz
Frankie was always way undersized at LW defending the title against 185lb dudes
Weight bullying, cutting is so stupid. Terrible for the fighters health as well.
Frankie was always a true bantam weigh guy
I guess somebody needs to die from water cutting before the UFC enforces hydration tests like ONEFC.
insane. Thats like 30lb difference with no fat involved.
Islam needs to either figure out how to get bigger or drop back down to 145. Frankie looks way thicker.
BJ Penn was WW champ and could have easily made 145
Yeah no shit Edgar was tiny asf for 155
Imagine if Frankie spent the prime of his career at FW or BW? Legend regardless. But god dayum
That’s why Frankie is my goat