What fighter has had the most success at going up in weight? Penn won a belt, Silva demolished LHW, what fighter went up in weight and had the most success?
B.J Penn, won the Lightweight Championship then went up to Welterweight and won the tittle there too.
Silva demolished LHW? He beat Forrest and a journeyman in Irvin. Jake Shields had a lot of success at MW. Beat Lawler, Hendo, and Mayhem. Prior to that, he had a win over Okami. Overeem has been a very successful HW since jumping up from LHW. Anthony Johnson has also been a better LHW than he ever was a WW. Hendo also is the only man to hold two belts simultaneously in a major MMA org.
I'm adding Frankie - who is smaller than most 135' lb fighters but had no choice to fight at 155 at the time.
It's hard to argue against Penn. Whittaker is doing great since moving-up to 185, hope he gets a nice fight soon to see how far he can go. EDIT : How could I forget Rumble ? Also Hendo would be a great choice but he moved too much between division to talk as if it was sudden step-up.
to me, Hendo is the best answer UFC 17 MW Tourney winner Pride Welterweight Champion (UFC MW equiv) Pride MW Champion (UFC LHW equiv) Srikeforce LHW Champion Beat Big Nog and Fedor at HW
Anderson Silva showed success at 205 with dominant wins against Irvin and Griffin. No one has had the success cutting height that Carwin did. Although many have tried.
This is incorrect, he lost to Pulver for the lightweight belt and then challenged Hughes at welterweight.
BJ was not the lw champion when he won the ww title. He only became lw champion after the division was re-instated
This is true. Also he had another crack at the belt after Pulver vacated it, but fought Uno to a draw for the vacated belt
Penn and Couture are two main fighters that come to mind since they both actually held titles. But Penn even fought Machida at one point.
