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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.
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.