Frankie Edgar Moving to Bantamweight
Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar will be moving down to bantamweight for his next bout, his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, tells ESPN.
Edgar and his team are planning for his 135-pound debut to take place at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where the UFC will be on Nov. 2 for UFC 244.
Edgar confirmed the news on his social media pages not along after Abdelaziz’s announcement.
Mark Henry, who coaches Edgar, feels cutting the extra weight will put “The Answer” in positions where he will be the larger-sized fighter — something that usually hasn’t been the case in his 12-year UFC career.
“It feels like a new beginning for us,” Henry said. “I love the kid, and I feel it will be safer for him at 135. He always does better when he fights guys his own size. When he’s fighting guys with similar height and range — sometimes they still weigh more than him, but I feel like it’s an even playing field.
“He was barely cutting any weight at featherweight. I think during this last camp, he was 152 pounds a few weeks before the fight. And he hadn’t started cutting yet.”
The New Jersey native most recently competed at UFC 240 a couple of weeks ago, losing to UFC featherweight champ Max Holloway.
Edgar came into the UFC as a lightweight in 2007, going on to upset BJ Penn at UFC 112 to win the UFC lightweight championship. Edgar retained the title in a rematch with Penn, as well as againist Gray Maynard twice, before dropping the belt to Benson Henderson and losing a rematch.
Edgar then moved down to featherweight, where he’s gone 8-4. Edgar defeated the likes of Urijah Faber, Jeremy Stephens and Cub Swanson, but dropped two title fights to Jose Aldo and was knocked out by Brian Ortega.
Report: ESPN