Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was recently stopped for the first time in his Hall-Of-Fame worthy career.
Slated to face Max Holloway for the UFC’s featherweight world title, Edgar would end up taking on the unbeaten Brian Ortega on short notice, only to get knocked out by the UFC’s rising star in the very first round of action.
It was a devastating result, and now his head coach Mark Henry is calling for his fighter to once again move down in weight.
In an interview with ESPN, Mark Henry said, “If he was getting tooled or rocked, I would say it. Getting hit with an elbow is different than a punch. It’s a different force. I’ve seen a lot of guys gets knocked out and they can’t remember the fight, asking the same question over and over, wobbly, complaining of a headache. Frankie had none of that.”
“I’ll tell you one thing: I would love to see Frankie fight at 135,” Henry said. “Every time Frankie has fought somebody his own size, he’s done very well.
“I re-watched the fight for the first time this weekend, and all these people had tweeted about how much bigger Brian looked. I watched it and said, ‘Holy cow, he was a lot bigger.’ It’s tough when you’re giving up size, height and range. Frankie got caught as he overstepped. He paid the price, but that’s what you have to do to compensate for that range. You have to come hard.
“Honestly, I don’t think he’ll move down unless it’s for a title. I think for him, it’s a toughness thing. I’m guessing he looks at it as moving down looks like a weakness. Well, that’s his weight. If Frankie is 15 pounds less than someone on fight night, that’s three weight classes in boxing. That’s a lot.”
