Frankie Edgar moving to bantamweight is a bad idea, says friend Josh Thomson

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Frankie Edgar moving to bantamweight is a bad idea, says friend Josh Thomson

Frankie Edgar is set to make his bantamweight debut against Cory Sandhagen in early 2020, but his friend Josh Thomson thinks it’s a bad idea.

Speaking on the “Weighing In” podcast, Thomson said that he is a close friend of Edgar and is worried about him moving down in weight this late into his career.

Here’s what “The Punk” said about Edgar moving down in weight.

“The bottom is this. As you get older, I feel like you should go up in weight, and not down in weight. Especially in the lightweight-weight divisions, speed kills. You’re fighting now guys who are going to be as fast as you, if not faster as you. As you go down in weight, it’s going to be a harder weight cut for you as well,” Thomson said about Edgar moving down.

“Frankie’s never really had to make the weight. At 155lbs, he didn’t cut any weight. He was actually eating at 2 or 3 in the morning just to keep the weight on. At 145lbs, he didn’t really have a weight problem either. Easy weight cut for him. At 135lbs, he’s going to actually have to put some work in to keep the weight down a little, and then cut the weight the week of the fight. He hasn’t normally had to do that. How is that going to affect him? We don’t know.”

Thomson is concerned that Edgar moving down in weight at the latter stages of his career is going to be an issue as he deals with the speed of his opponents there.

“He’s been cutting weight his whole life, with wrestling he’s been involved with the saunas. He understands how to cut the weight and do it properly. That won’t be as much of an effect to him as much as the speed of the weight class will. To me, that’s going to be the distinct difference of whether he succeeds or not in the 135lbs division,” Thomson said.

“My concern is, as you get older you slow down. I saw when he fought Max Holloway and the other guys at 145lbs, he had a harder time with the guys that were as fast as him.”

Do you agree with Josh Thomson’s concerns with Frankie Edgar moving down in weight?

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