Yeah the size question is an interesting one in my opinion and I guess we’ll never really know how he would have looked if he had fought lower for more of his career. I’ll probably get flamed for saying this but I think he might have been one of those guys who benefited from fighting up. I think the lack of a weight cut combined with the speed and agility advantage that being smaller often gave him played into his strengths.
But it’s definitely one of those unknowable things. How would he have looked against TJ or Cruz? Who knows. Maybe their movement would have been too much for him and he would have struggled to keep up. Or maybe the size advantage would have allowed him to just take them down and maul them. Either way though, I’m glad he had the career that he did.