Size be damned, Frankie Edgar continues to be a UFC lightweight fixture
Sometimes, I get the feeling that Frankie Edgar could beat Anderson Silva and Jon Jones on back-to-back nights and then be hounded on the third about a potential move to featherweight.
The desire to see Edgar drop from lightweight to featherweight is perplexing because there is nothing – not one single shred of evidence – that suggests he needs to do it.
It would be fantastic to see Edgar drop down, if only temporarily, simply because a match with featherweight champion Jose Aldo would be so appealing.
The notion, though, that Edgar somehow needs to move down because he's not good enough to cut it at lightweight is almost as ludicrous as asking if the Cubs have a chance to win it all this year.
Edgar, at lightweight, is one of the great fighters in the world. He's 14-2-1, with one of his losses coming to Gray Maynard in 2008 and one of his losses coming to Benson Henderson in an excruciatingly close lightweight title fight in February. The next time he gets blown out will be the first.
He's gone 3-1-1 in UFC title fights, has been one of the sport's most exciting fighters and has never been finished.
He'll meet Henderson for the title Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver in the main event of UFC 150, a rematch of their UFC 144 classic. Henderson won by unanimous decision in what has turned out to be one of the best fights of the year.
Edgar knows if he loses, and perhaps even if he wins, that he'll be asked about dropping in weight. It's one of those stock questions, like "What do you think of your opponent?", "How did training camp go?", and "Who do you want to fight next?" that are asked almost without fail at every interview session.
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Edgar is unfailingly polite and answers the question as if he memorized it before leaving the house. That, though, doesn't mean it makes sense.
"Maybe I am too small," he says with a sigh. "Who knows? There must be a reason so many people ask me about it."
Edgar is one of the smallest lightweights in the division. He can eat a full meal on the day of the weigh-in and not worry about missing weight. He's never much more than 155 or 160 pounds at any stage, so his weight cuts are about as easy as it gets in mixed martial arts.
If he were routinely getting overpowered, perhaps the Edgar-to-featherweight talk would make sense. But even Henderson, who simply appears bigger and more physically intimidating than Edgar, can't overwhelm him.
Maybe it's his nickname. He's known as "The Answer," a pedestrian name that doesn't inspire much passion. If he were nicknamed, oh, "Pee Wee," maybe the crowds would pick up the cause for the little guy as the underdog and questions about him going to 145 pounds would cease.
To this point, however, Edgar hasn't been embraced by the fighting public despite consistently being in outstanding fights and fighting anyone. He's low-key and shuns the spotlight, preferring not to draw attention to himself.
In a sport in which you make your living by getting people to pay to see you fight, though, that's not always the smartest business practice.
But in the cage, where the real business takes place, Edgar is a genius. He's moving into the realm of guys like UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre for his ability to devise a strategy and then adjust when it's necessary.
"It's all part of trying to get better," said Edgar, who can spew a cliché with the best of them. "There are always a lot of little things in a fight that you look at and want to go back and fix. I've always kind of set a goal of just being better in all aspects each time I fight.
"My coaches do a good job working with me on the mistakes I make and on kind of figuring out the best way to go at a particular fight."
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Edgar said he felt he won the first fight with Henderson, but isn't expecting the rematch to unfold similarly.
"I have things I think that worked pretty well and things I think I need to do a little better, and I think the same thing is probably true for him," Edgar said. "We're the same guys, but I wouldn't say it's going to be the same fight."
The only thing likely to stay the same is the question. When the fight ends, win or lose, Edgar is going to be asked about a move to featherweight.
Like death and taxes, it's becoming one of life's certainties.
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