Should more fighters fight in more than one weight class?

Dan Henderson, BJ Penn and Randy Couture all fought in two weight divisions and won 2 titles. Rich Franklin has had mixed success at MW, LHW and in catch weight bouts. Anderson Silva is 3-0 at LHW. Jake Shields was the Strikeforce MW champion and had a title shot at WW. So should more fighters move up and down divisions?

 

Nope.

 

If there are more marketable fights in other weight classes they should move.

 

Yes. I find it to be one of the most exciting things in MMA.

 

That's purely up to them. Some guys have less trouble shifting between weights and dealing with bigger, stronger or smaller, faster opponents.

Diego has fought with pretty good success at 2 weight classes.

 

U forgot Florian...he went damn near everywhere

 

Yes

 

"Should" is relative. It all depends on the fighter, possible match-ups, career implications, physical issues, and many other criteria. If a fighter wants to move that is entirely his choice and only time can tell whether or not that choice was the best for him.

 

I agree with this, but as a fan I am more likely to support someone who is willing to move up in weight. I think that gain in popularity makes the "should" a marketing and legacy argument.

 

As long as they're able to do so without detriment to their health, I don't see a problem with it.

 

It would be nice for more champs who are waiting on contenders to move up.

 

Not really. Why don't more guys move down? Oh, that's right, they're looking for size advantages and they're too big at their own weight class to reasonably cut that much weight. Why would smaller guys move up a weight class only to find that they're still about a weight class short in the size department?

 

WW, MW, and LHW should all be merged.

 

According to silva haters, he's not even good until he stops ducking his good friends jds and machida.

 

fighting at a natural weight and cutting weight to fight put a different strain on your body it is some thing you have to get use to before you can do it. if any thing i would say some caught weight fights at the most but its not boxing the classes are not 5 to 10 pounds different so its a a lot harder to do for most guys.