"Imagine if Frankie had fought at 145 or 135 his whole career"

[X Factor]

This just seems like a long, boring, thinly-veiled Edgar bashing thread and I sincerely doubt you are a fan. Gray Maynard was a giant 155er with amazing wrestling credentials.... how does a fight with MTB look at all similar to this? Edgar has the edge in every way against prime Brown.

Edgar handily beats Brown and any version of Faber (without his usual wrestling advantage, Faber would get outboxed soundly by Edgar), and really anyone else besides Aldo. Prime Aldo beats any version of Edgar but besides that, you are not giving him enough credit.

Glad no one is wasting their time reading this crap.

You’re not giving WEC enough credit dude

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Solid career at 155... Doubt he would beat Aldo... back then or ever. Now 135. Shoot, Edgar vs Cruz would have been one for the ages...

 

[Arqueto]

Cmon fellas @binny How about you actually contribute to his well thought out thread rather than rush to derail it for a couple of likes.

Cliffs:

More than one sentence or a gif was posted. Would take at least a minute and a half to read.

Took me an hour to make that gif. You guys do Sherdog your way I'll do it my way, it's all good.

@binny if you want me to delete my post bro I will. I didn't mean to be a dick in your thread, let me know.

 

[BC]

Catch you on the flipside though.

Pull up den

 

[dipstickjimmy]

I suggest Cain Velasquez has also benefited from being smaller than his competition.

He was smaller then some like Brock, Rothwell and Bigfoot but JDS, Congo, Browne, Big Nog, Werdum are all in the 240lb range. HW is far too big of a range IMO. I would love to see 170 closed with 165 & 175 added as well as 195 and then adding 196-225, 226- 239 & 240 + as the new HW. The conditions for that is no dehydrating for a weight cut. Fighters must weigh in their range for the 6 weeks prior to their fight with 3 scheduled weigh ins and 3 random. In other words fight at your in shape walk around weight.

 

[cambo78]

Pull up den

Umm. You do know what "catch you on the flip" means, right?

 

[BC]

Took me an hour to make that gif. You guys do Sherdog your way I'll do it my way, it's all good.

@binny if you want me to delete my post bro I will. I didn't mean to be a dick in your thread, let me know.

Some people are a bit more effected by words and criticism, I know it’s all in good fun and know you had no malicious intent but still, my guy @binny is a nice dude.

 

[BC]

Umm. You do know what "catch you on the flip" means, right?

I’m sorry. We just had a Rampage Jackson “squash it” misunderstanding sequence.

 

[Kyler Ruxin]

Took me an hour to make that gif. You guys do Sherdog your way I'll do it my way, it's all good.

@binny if you want me to delete my post bro I will. I didn't mean to be a dick in your thread, let me know.

lmao

The gif is solid.


but so is the thread idea. Frankie is already great and would have been even better if he always fought below 155. Not sure he could have handled Aldo, but he might have been someone that Conor had to go through to get to Aldo, similar to Mendes. Conor might not "exist" if Edgar was at 145. Or Conor could have knocked him out in a huge matchup. Lots of variables and "what ifs" there. A fun subject to think of in MMA.

 

[Shadowthrone]

He would have lost to Aldo 3 times instead of 2,and lost to Cruz

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Solid post TS. The WEC has better fighters in its 145&155 than the UFC when it was at its peak.

I don’t like Edgar’s chances against a prime Faber, prime Aldo, or MTB.

He would have his best chance against Brown, but like you said, he had game changing power. Edgar certainly would’ve had a speed advantage though.

Edgar’s more recent fight with Faber doesn’t tell us anything as Faber was clearly on the back 9 of his career. Faber’s strength was in his literal strength and speed, his athleticism. When that started to slip he was noticeably not the same fighter (this really happened even before the WEC divisions became UFC divisions). He’s as tough as they come so he was still able to compete at a high level, but to those who had watched him it was clear he had lost a step.


WEC Aldo hurts Edgar, badly. Although that version of Aldo did throw more leg kicks and if there is one thing Edgar could do well it was catch a low kick and turn it into a takedown. I still don’t like his chances though. Aldo in the WEC is one of the greatest of all time. I think that Aldo probably beats any FW in the world from any era.

At 135 Edgar would have lost the speed advantage that made him so successful at 155 in his prime. Not sure how this would have gone over.


The WEC had the superior fighters, this seems pretty clear in hindsight. Ironically it was a WEC lightweight in Benson Henderson that stopped Edgar’s title reign.


WEC never dies.

Any version of Frankie wrecks Faber of any era. Faber is 2 years older then Frankie so a more "Prime" Faber takes on a more "Prime" Frankie and as we saw Frankie was Bigger, Stronger, Faster and more Skilled.

 

[dipstickjimmy]

He would have lost to Aldo 3 times instead of 2,and lost to Cruz

Not sure about losing to Cruz. Cruz' wrestling wouldn't give him the advantage and neither would his speed and footwork (assuming a BW Frankie can perform). Would be a good fight IMO but Frankie would be favoured and if it was at FW highly favoured.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

You’re not giving WEC enough credit dude

Edgar is one of the best fighters of all time and is incredibly well rounded... saying he would beat all of the top WEC guys besides Aldo is not a disparaging comment. Urijah matches up extremely poorly with Edgar at any stage of his career. Being able to hang with Sean Sherk in the wrestling department outweighs the threat of any wrestler there or in the UFC at the time

 

[Workaholic]

I love the WEC but Frankie would have rolled Faber and Brown

Aldo is a different story and while I think he would have had a better shot against WEC Aldo than the version he eventually fought I think Aldo would still take it

 

[King in the North]

Any version of Frankie wrecks Faber of any era. Faber is 2 years older then Frankie so a more "Prime" Faber takes on a more "Prime" Frankie and as we saw Frankie was Bigger, Stronger, Faster and more Skilled.

Their age is pretty irrelevant here. Yoel Romero is 41 and Fedor is 42. Think they both entered their fighting prime at the same time?

Faber had 40 professional fights going into the Edgar fight. Edgar had 24 in roughly the same amount of time.

It’s obviously not a certainty but I’ll just agree to disagree. I don’t think Faber at his peak loses to the best version of Edgar, not at 135 or 145. He had more power, arguably better wrestling—or at least close enough to negate it, and was the better athlete.

Faber via right hand and guillotine.

 

[Shadowthrone]

Not sure about losing to Cruz. Cruz' wrestling wouldn't give him the advantage and neither would his speed and footwork (assuming a BW Frankie can perform). Would be a good fight IMO but Frankie would be favoured and if it was at FW highly favoured.

I wonder if the cut to 35 would be too hard for Frankie at this stage. The Cruz fight would be cool to see thats for sure

 

[X Factor]

Edgar is one of the best fighters of all time and is incredibly well rounded... saying he would beat all of the top WEC guys besides Aldo is not a disparaging comment. Urijah matches up extremely poorly with Edgar at any stage of his career. Being able to hang with Sean Sherk in the wrestling department outweighs the threat of any wrestler there or in the UFC at the time

Fair enough I don’t disagree Edgar is a great but still I don’t think any of those fights would be a lock for him prime Faber and prime MTB were legit and even the 155ers in the WEC were legit. Also Sean Sherk isn’t exactly a great comparison for the lighter weight classes dude was at WW at one point he would be considered slow compared to a 135er or 145er in my opinion.

 

[Gambit MMA]

Aldo has his number at 145 so he would have never got gold there. 135 is a different story, if he was gonna cut to that he should have when he was younger, he’s too old now. I could see him being champ when Cruz was gone and before tj showed up. So like the Renan barao days.

 

[binny]

Would have Been 135 GOAT imo

I reckon cruz would have been too fast for frankie. I think not cutting weight for years saved him from struggling in later years. Who knows though.

 

[snackgod]

Just like to start by saying I've watched several hours of fights today in preparation for my WEC(ish) thread of the week. So read my wall of text graciously if you will.

The thread title, in some form or another, has been posted on the boards. It's usually tethered to marveling at frankie fighting at 155 against larger opponents for most of his career. He should be applauded for that, but today I got to thinking "Well, what IF Frankie really did fight at FW or BW from the start of his career? Would it have favored him or his legacy more?"

Only, no UFC for Frankie if he was at those classes. He would've been a WEC boy

Before we get started on Frankie vs the WEC featherweight division, it is worth noting that at the time Frankie started fighting professionally, it was still common for fighters to receive title shots after one or no previous WEC fights/wins. Since Frankie was a decorated wrestler and won his first 4 fights in the first round, let's start with 4-0 Frankie

From the time Frankie could've potentially been thrown in a WEC title bout, there were 3 FW champions before WEC shut down.

Urijah Faber- This one was a no brainer from reviewing prime Faber's fights. Dude was manhandling guys. Whether with finesse or brute strength, Faber was excellent at getting guys to the ground. He could defend subs, reverse tricky situations with explosive power, and submit ANYONE around at the time. It's also worth noting Faber had deadly elbows on top. Whether corner,ref,or doctors stoppage, or you tapping to strikes, you were likely to end up in a bloody heap if he starting throwing those down on you. Faber did throw some wild shit on the feet that resulted in him losing a couple of times, but Frankie didn't have power like Tyson Griffin or Mike Brown then. Maybe not even the stand up skill to catch him that flush at all yet.

Let's skip to 2009. Frankie is 11-1 and just beat Sean Sherk. Probably a good place to call his entry into his fighting prime. Since we can't imagine how he would have progressed against WEC FW comp, we will use what we know, where he was at in the UFC at the time.

Mike Brown- This one isn't nearly as bad, as Mike was a bit more limited than Faber, and Edgar has gained a ton of experience in just a few years. Still though, Mike was bigger, stronger, hit harder, and had great wrestling/grappling. It could have looked something like Edgar vs Maynard, and since Frankie was in between the 2 halves of that trilogy, it's tough to say what would have happened for sure. He very well could've been WEC 145 champ, but not for long..

Jose Aldo- Frankie in reality is 0-2 against Aldo, but I decided to watch his first couple of title fights to see if anything a younger Aldo did could leave him exposed.. Nope, not really anything. More pain for Frankie, Aldo just isn't a good matchup at any point in eithers careers.

Conclusion- Edgar at 145 from the beginning very well could've seen Gold, but Aldo would've been there to ensure that he couldn't build a better title reign than what he had at UFC LW.

A short(ish) look at WEC 135. Frankie has never fought at 135. Who knows if his speed would hold up well or his cardio. The speculation gets extra, extra speculative now. Let's for fun say that Frankie beat Eddie Wineland for the inaugural 135 title and lost it to cruz ( just opinion but I don't pick frankie over prime cruz at 135). To be fair to frankie lets say his fight frequency in that time didn't change at all from what he actually did fight. It would leave him at 7 title defenses (damn). The only problem is beating No title chase beebe, wineland, bowles, torres, mizugaki, etc. doesn't exactly feel like the trade I'd want in exchange for Penn x2 and the Maynard Trilogy.

Anyways, I sat in front of my laptop for 6-7 hours pouring over a shit load of fights to bring as much insight into the speculations as I could. They were just speculations, remember that..Sorry not all punctuation is present, but my head hurts too bad to care at this point lol. The thread is just an attempt to put to rest people wondering what could have been for Frankie. He made the right career choices. He dealt with high risk and he got high reward in return. He's my favorite fighter ever.

he always wanted to stay in the ufc.