Not everybody can have low BF and compete at a high level at the same time. When it comes to HWs the extra weight, whether it be muscle or fat, helps. Being much higher than 240-50 lbs will probably destroy your cardio though.
Yes they can. It just takes discipline
What the OP is talking about really isn't an issue at Flyweight, Bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight or welterweight. For whatever reason the weight classes that basically 6'0ft and under have guys who are more conditioned. I mean that entire Flyweight, BW, FW and LW roster is cut on average. Team Alpha male is all shredded.
LHW and HW is where you see the fatness coming in. Even MW to a degree. Of course there are exceptions you still got skinny fat guys like Condit fighting at a lower weight class than what their frame can allow. If Condit put on real muscle mass then he would be a MW.
Karo Parisyan and fighters like him from a much older era are a dying breed. Karo was the definition of skinny fat and as such always was out muscled and wrecked by stronger often shorter guys.
There is a point of diminishing returns. Just like how pudz had to lose muscle for MMA about other fighters benefit from adding muscle
Someone like Roy Nelson should lose fat, werdum probably wouldn't benefit from losing fat and would probably suffer more from training on a caloric benefit than would benefit from losing fat
I'm just saying that a 6 pack is not always the optimal shape for training and fighting MMA as a heavyweight where they aren't trying to make the lightness weightclass possible
I don't think Cain should gain fat but if he has the cardio to last 5 rounds at a high pace and he's still fast, having fat isn't hurting him. He eats enough food to train as hard as he does, he shouldn't go on a deficit and have less energy for training
Post and pre USADA Cain are different though for whatever reason. Cain doesn't look today nor his last fights show he can last 5 rounds.
I don't think it would hurt Cain at all to go on a controlled slight calorie deficit and increase weight training to shed say 5lbs to 10 lbs of fat and in doing that gain some minor degree of strength. I am sure Cain lifts a little but how seasoned are his muscles as compared to Dos Santos or Overeem?
What I am saying is quite easily in an offseason he could drop 15lbs of fat and then gain 5 pounds of mostly lean muscle in the equivalent term of a semester. I don't see how that would at all hurt him if anything he'd be more explosive and athletic.
Pudz is an extreme example but a good one. The guy was like 320lbs at what, sun 10% body fat? His LBM numbers must of been insane and far over the natural threshold of what is naturally attainable and say even exceeding what is optimum for athletic use of running gear.
But Cain wont. He loves to eat and doesn't seem like the type who takes things as serious as say Jon Jones does or say GSP did. And when Cain retires he will likely only gain more weight since his output will decline. But hey its his life.
