There's no doubt that Frankie Edgar would rather not be listening to talk about a move to featherweight right about now.
After all, if "The Answer" were once again the UFC Lightweight Champion - which many observers think he should be after his UFC 150 fight with "Smooth" Benson Henderson - no one would be suggesting that the former champ needed to drop to 145 pounds.
That's not happening, though. After five hard-fought rounds on Saturday night in Denver, Henderson is still the champion, and after losing two fights to "Bendo," Edgar would have significant work to do before getting a third matchup. So, naturally, the subject of Edgar moving down to featherweight is on the rise again, and Edgar's boxing coach, Mark Henry (no, not the Olympic weightlifter turned WWE wrestler), is even suggesting that "The Answer" move to bantamweight. On Monday, SWR called for Edgar to move to featherweight because while he can certainly compete with (and beat) the best lightweights in the UFC, he overwhelmingly can't finish them, due in part to his size disadvantage.
However, while these suggestions are based on a loss, the reality is that a move to 145 pounds should be viewed as a positive for Edgar. In a sense, it's a retreat, but in another sense, moving to featherweight could put him in elite company in mixed martial arts history.
In the history of the UFC, only two men have held championships in two different weight classes. One is Randy Couture, a UFC Hall-of-Famer and a legend in the sport. The other is BJ Penn, another legend in the sport, a future Hall-of-Famer, and the man whom Edgar beat to capture the UFC Lightweight Championship in the first place. Dan Henderson also deserves a mention in this space for his PRIDE titles at 183 and 205 pounds, but the point is that if Edgar is the success at 145 that he's expected to be, he'll go down in MMA history as being one of only a handful of men to accomplish a rare feat.
Of course, there's no guarantee that he'd actually accomplish the feat, as 145-pound kingpin Jose Aldo is certainly capable of beating Edgar. However, Edgar is almost certainly a match for Aldo as well, and a fight between the two would be the kind of marquee main event that the UFC has been missing in the featherweight division ever since the WEC merged into the larger promotion at the end of 2010.
As it stands now, Edgar was a very good champion. He beat a legend to win the title (Penn), dominated said legend in the rematch, then rallied from behind to draw and then knock out rival Gray Maynard at UFC 125 and UFC 136. It's quite possible that he could still be champion - or be champion - again today, and he would be a great champion.
However, moving to featherweight means an opportunity to become an all-time great, which is one more reason to expect to see Frankie Edgar at 145 before too long.
