‘Maybe Size Does Matter Sometimes’

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Following his defeat to Frankie Edgar, everyone is talking bantamweight for Edgar. Here’s where he’s at on that.

Frankie Edgar put on a gutsy performance with a lot of heart at UFC 240, but it was nowhere near enough to defeat Max Holloway, whose “Blessed” featherweight era rolls on with no obvious end in sight. It was a testament to Frankie’s toughness that he survived a five round fight with Holloway when so many others have been battered horribly into a stoppage (watch the highlights here). But that didn’t stop him from feeling just obviously heartbroken and terrible about the loss.

One point that kept coming up after the fight: how small he looked in comparison to Holloway. It’s crazy to think Edgar won the lightweight belt at one point and held onto it stubbornly despite his size. But these days it’s getting harder to be a little guy in a big division, and many think it’s time he moved down from featherweight to bantamweight.

Even Edgar mentioned the size in his post fight interview.

”I gave up some pounds tonight,” he told Joe Rogan. “And that’s not an excuse, it doesn’t matter. I should have won the fight anyway.”

Normally UFC president Dana White is the first person to tell someone to move weight classes, especially when there’s such an obvious size disparity going on between a fighter and his opponents. But White was pretty respectful at the UFC 240 post fight press conference, leaving that decision up to Edgar.

”You know, it’s really up to Frankie,” White said. “With people like him, I’m like what’s left to prove. He’s done it all. Other than money, what does he need? What does he want. I know he’s a competitor and he wants to win that title again so bad and … he’s pushing forty. I was just talking s**t at Faber and Faber just looked great at forty, so who knows. We’ll see what he wants to do.”

Edgar talked to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto shortly after the loss and while he wasn’t willing to commit to anything, the wheels were clearly turning in his head regarding the size thing.

”I mean, I was always the little guy growing up. It didn’t matter,” Edgar said. “I wanted to show my kid it didn’t matter. But … you get the high-level guys, maybe it does matter sometimes. I dunno. I dunno what I’m going to do yet.”