Which fighters who dropped to a lower weight class do you feel still could have been champion or at least a perennial contender if they stayed in their original division? Two of the obvious choices would be Ronda at FW and Cormier at HW but who are others?
No, he would have kept getting murdered by Aldo, and put into a spot where he'd never receive a title shot.
He got two title shots at BW. He probably would have done the same thing at FW by beating top 10 opponents and then losing to Aldo.
very, very few, sadly. if everyone stopped cutting so dramatically it might be different, but the cutting weight game is so stacked that there are very few "exceptions that prove the rule" Hendo has proven to be better at a heavier weight. Couture would have been perfect for a 220 division but acknowledged that he went down to 205 b/c he was tired of fighting 240+ lb wrestlers. A Silva obviously did pretty well when he moved from 170 --> 185 but with so many others cutting 6%-14% of body weight, it makes it tough to stay at a healthy weight and fight guys that outweigh you so dramatically. to repeat, very few "exceptions that prove the rule"
Yeah, but he already had one loss to Aldo before coming into the UFC. He loses one more and he's not getting a trilogy where one fighter is 0-2. Besides I don't think he would have been able to beat Edgar or Mendes.
I liked Marquardt better at MW. Guida at LW. Tyson Griffin at LW. He just caught by Gomi. Chael, obviously, has no business with the elite at LHW. Jake Shields looked better at MW. Kennedy Florian should NEVER have gone to FW. Honorable mention: Goku at HW.
Nate Marquardt is the one that comes to mind for me... he looks so emaciated at 170... and his performances, aside from the win over Woodley, have been lacking...
http://forums.sherdog.com/forums/f44/history-odds-rankings-2001-2004-a-975549/ November 19, 2001 WELTERWEIGHT 155 - 170 lbs. (70.45 - 77.27 kg) 1. Anderson Silva 140 2. Matt Hughes 123 3. Hayato Sakurai 119 4. Carlos Newton 116 5. Pat Miletich 100 6. Frank Trigg 72 7. Tetsuji Kato 47 8. Gil Castillo 30 9. Shonie Carter 29 10. Sean Sherk 24 there's a long history of mma prior to 2006 that i envy you for; i would LOVE to go back and watch it all for the first time again
lol. I watched it prior, just don't retain useless numbers. Like listening to a woman talk, remember her boobs but no idea what she said. fun fact learned, thanks
