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At UFC 150, former Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar finally relinquished his claim to the 155 lb. title after a close-fought and controversial decision loss to current champ Ben Henderson. Since then, the continuous speculation of a potential drop to Featherweight has reached new heights. Throughout his UFC career, Edgar's relatively small stature for the division has led many to believe he'd be more successful in the lighter division. Edgar has brushed the idea off time and time again en route to claiming the belt and defending it 3 times.
However, tonight, he announced his official decision to make the cut on UFC Tonight ( via Ariel Helwani's Twitter)
As reported on
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 22, 2012@ufctonight,@frankieedgar has officially decided to move to 145 lbs. He hopes to debut before the end of year. Opponent TBD.
One of the most exciting proposition of this move is a highly anticipated bout between the former champion and current dominant 145 lb. champion Jose Aldo. Aldo has reigned atop the Featherweight division since long before the UFC merged with the WEC. With the fight now a real possibility, he addressed the possibility of fighting Edgar to Tatame:
He said he wants to drop to the featherweight so I’m hoping he does that to end this story. He’s welcome here so that we shut him off and he goes to the lightweight or bantamweight classes.
The prospect of a Featherweight title bout between the two is very exciting. Despite almost always being the underdog, Edgar found incredible success against the bigger fighters at 155. Now, we'll have a chance to see whether his speed and movement advantages will translate to the same success against smaller opponents. I wouldn't expect him to get an immediate title shot against Aldo, but following a fight against a top 10 competitor he could repeat the pattern set by Kenny Florian.
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