Fighters do so much better when they move up in weight, not down.

[carrythezero]

I’d love to see a comparison of W-L of fighters who moved up a weightclass vs fighters who moved down. I bet the difference would be substantial. Why do these guys continue to try and kill themselves to get a size advantage when it’s rarely works?

 

[gluehuffer1776]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

 

[Diamond Dallas Poirier]

Weight cutting is bad when the classes are this close together.

Who'd have ever thought risking death via dehydration to get an inch of height, an inch of reach, and 10 pounds of weight would be bad?

 

[carrythezero]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

An outlier, yes. But he lost just as much at LHW. Jones x2, Stipe x2

 

[Ivancho]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

cormier is a fat and big boned 5'9 he never was a real hw

 

[RayA]

One thing is, it seems like guys who move up fight lesser competition at first while those who move down are immediately thrown into the top ten.

I wonder if that skews our perception a bit.

 

[carrythezero]

All the guys who moved up that did well, off the top of my head - Poirier, Charley Olives, Whittaker, Anthony Smith, Gastellum, Thiago Santos,

 

[MadNIghtKing]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

Cormier also knew how to hold on to towels while on the scale.

 

[Johnnny]

Khabib did great moving down from welterweight to lightweight when the UFC came calling. Had he stayed at welterweight, he could have been more active (only fought 8 times over the last 7 years of his career) but he would have lost a few times.

 

[Alexander_GOATanovski]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

Not like he had the option to go up

One thing is, it seems like guys who move up fight lesser competition at first while those who move down are immediately thrown into the top ten.

I wonder if that skews our perception a bit.

Moving up is also more common than moving down so you have different sample sizes

 

[mst-dot]

cormier went down a weight class and won the belt

He went back up and won it too..

 

[NoSmilez]

It is implied you move up and the guys might be less skilled and you have a speed advantage. There are guys who cut two weight classes though.

 

[Big Al's Texas BBQ]

Not always true. There have been guys who moved down and did better.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

Think it just depends on the actual size of the fighter.

These guys that move down are really doing so unnaturally and killing themselves.

Can't think of many guys who truly belong at the lighter weightclass they competed in, aside from guys who fought at higher weights because their real weightclass didn't exist yet (Edgar, numerous flyweights including Demetrious and Benevidez, etc.)

Only name aside from those guys I can think of is Maia who legit belonged at WW, and he still was great at MW.

 

[RiotWyatt]

Everyone to HW then.

 

[RockyLockridge]

It can be hard to gauge sometimes. for example porier moved up, probably did better at LW but never won the title much like his time at FW so who is to say it really helped him? hell maybe he'd have beaten max at FW if he could have gotten there. RDA is another one, he found many successes at WW but never made it to the top, he was probably better off at LW

meanwhile guys like Edgar and aldo both had great success in moving down though neither won titles at the lower weights. I think it's reasonable to say frankie was better fit at FW than LW but he was a champ at LW. Aldo probably better at FW but it's hard to tell because he only loses to the best fighters (Yan, Max, Volk)

Cannonier moved down 3 weight classes (HW, LHW, MW) and got a title shot. same with florian (WW, LW, FW)


Different strokes for different folks. Most people cant move down weight classes to begin with because they cut so much to be in the category they are already in. I think that's why you see more success with moving up, it's easier to do than dropping a class, it's more likely that the fighter can.

 

[GrantB13]

If everyone agreed to move up one weight all at the same time we probably would get better fights. The guys like Colby and other natural weight fighters can stay.

 

[Midget Boxer]

Conor and RDA did worse going up a weight class

 

[OldBoy91]

I really don't understand why more fighters don't do this.

Fighters have shown to carry Knockout power up weight classes, and also tend to enjoy a speed advantage at the higher weights.

Whereas we've seen so many fighters lose their speed, power AND durability/chin when they move down weightclasses.

Size advantage is nothing but a poisoned chalice.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I really don't understand why more fighters don't do this.

Fighters have shown to carry Knockout power up weight classes, and also tend to enjoy a speed advantage at the higher weights.

Depends what kind of fighter you are, grapplers can bully you easier. If this is bad for your style it wont help you.