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

binny

I'll beat your ass if you jump on my couch.
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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.
 
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Great post brother. I agree that he got the most out of his career by going the route he did. I think he would give up the edge in everything he’s good at in fighting smaller guys. And he wouldn’t be gaining any significant advantage in size or power.

I think it’s very close to Whitaker’s position. Better to give up a little size, but be the best version of yourself and have the quickness advantage, when your bread and butter is technical boxing.
 
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.
 
Frankie fought in the weaker division at the time. Good choice for him.

Didn't read btw
 
Frankie being LW champion is > anything he could have done in the WEC. Aldo is a legend because of his UFC run. Faber is less of a legend because of his ceiling in the UFC and Frankie destroyed him. Frankie > Faber and Aldo > Frankie @ FW but I would love to see what Aldo could have done at LW. I am not sure he has the same success and Frankie was pretty damn good at LW. Being smaller is what made him better and that almost never is the case. Frankie is a one of a kind.
 
Great post brother. I agree that he got the most out of his career by going the route he did. I think he would give up the edge in everything he’s good at in fighting smaller guys. And he wouldn’t be gaining any significant advantage in size or power.

I think it’s very close to Whitaker’s position. Better to give up a little size, but be the best version of yourself and have the quickness advantage, when your bread and butter is technical boxing.

Agreed, Frankie’s bread and butter was his footwork and speed and boxing (along with his toughness and wrestling of course), he picked the right route to give up size to be able to have the most success with his best skills.
 
I think USADA era Frankie could possibly cut to 125
 
Frankie would probably never have been a champ if he fought at 145. Not unless he got a title shot before Aldo.
 
Imagine if Frankie wasn't gifted the decision against BJ. He would have fought Maynard and probably lost without the champ advantage and then just been some middle of the road nobody until he retired in 2015
 
Solid post TS. The WEC had 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.
 
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Cmon fellas @binny is a really nice dude and put some actual effort into this thread, I know the didn’t read memes are a given in any thread that is more than 5 paragraphs for you to read but this is an actual original topic.

How about you actually contribute to his well thought out thread rather than rush to derail it for a couple of likes.
Normally I would but I'm far from an Edgar fan. So, no thanks. Catch you on the flipside though.
 
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