Coming off his
heartbreaking loss to Max Holloway at UFC 240 last month, former UFC lightweight champion and three-time featherweight title challenge Frankie Edgar is moving down in weight and will fight next at bantamweight.
Edgar's longtime manager Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN that Edgar hopes to make his bantamweight debut this year.
"We have already started discussing Frankie's bantamweight debut," Abdelaziz told ESPN. "We're hoping it will be at UFC 244 on Nov. 2 at Madison Square Garden, but 100 percent Frankie's next fight will be at 135 pounds."
Frankie Edgar made his UFC debut in 2007, initially competing in the 155-pound lightweight division. He won the lightweight belt in 2010 and defended it for three fights before losing to Benson Henderson in 2012.
He dropped to the 145-pound featherweight division in 2013, and he has competed there since. Since the move to featherweight, Edgar has gone 8-4. He has fought for the welterweight belt three times and has come up short all thre etimes. He lost twice to Jose Aldo, in 2013 and 2016, both by unanimous decision. He challenged Max Holloway for the featherweight title last month at UFC 240 and also lost by unanimous decision.
"It feels like a new beginning for us," said Edgar's coach Mark Henry.
"I love the kid, and I feel it will be safer for him at 135. He always does better when he fights guys his own size. When he's fighting guys with similar height and range -- sometimes they still weigh more than him, but I feel like it's an even playing field. He was barely cutting any weight at featherweight. I think during this last camp, he was 152 pounds a few weeks before the fight. And he hadn't started cutting yet."
At 37-years-old, time isn't exactly on Edgar's side, so he'll have to work quickly and efficiently if he wants to become a champion once more. Despite his loss to Max Holloway, Edgar didn't really show any signs of age or slowing down; he was simply outfought.