Former UFC Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar is preparing to face UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway for the gold at UFC 218.
When it comes to the topic of extreme weight cuts, the former champion doesn’t see that coming to an end anytime soon.
“I do. Wrestling has seen it happen back in ‘96, ‘97, or something like that, where a few wrestlers died at the college level and they upped the weight classes,” Edgar said on The MMA Hour. “If you add more weight classes, it could encourage people to cut less weight, but it also might encourage someone to cut more weight. They’ll say, ‘Oh, I couldn’t make ‘55, but I can make ‘65,’ and they were going ‘70. So I don’t know, I think people are always going to look for a way to get an advantage and cutting weight is going to be really tough to get people to stop doing that. Maybe hydration tests. In college, the best way we did it, we did hour weigh-ins, you weigh in an hour before you compete. But that’s just not feasible, I think, in MMA.”
Edgar has only competed in two weight classes during his professional MMA career -- lightweight (155 pounds) and featherweight (145 pounds).
Even though Edgar doesn’t see the weight cutting issues going away, there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer in his opinion either.
“It’s just tough. I don’t think there’s any easy answer. Some suggestions have to happen or something bad will happen. You’re seeing guys end up in hospitals for weight cuts pretty frequently, luckily they’re getting the help they need and nothing too serious happens,” says Edgar.
UFC 218 takes place on Saturday, December 2 from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan with Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
