5 times that moving down in weight backfired for a UFC star

The UFC is a difficult place to thrive in and so its fighters naturally face plenty of peaks and troughs during their time with the promotion.

Many UFC fighters have made the call to move down in weight in order to chase success. While that can be a path to the top for some, others have seen the move backfire on them greatly.

Sometimes suffering due to a huge weight cut, or by finding that the strengths they had in their higher weight class have been negated, it’s never good when it happens to a fighter and can often lead to a violent defeat.

With that in mind, here are five times that moving down in weight backfired for a UFC star.

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#5. Cody Garbrandt – bantamweight to flyweight (UFC 269)

Cody Garbrandt struggled mightily in his first foray into the UFC flyweight division

The most recent entry on this list comes from last weekend’s UFC 269. Former UFC bantamweight kingpin Cody Garbrandt’s attempt at becoming a title contender at flyweight blew up in his face pretty badly.

The move was a curious one from the offset. Garbrandt was hardly on a slide at 135 pounds, as he returned to action in 2020 with an exceptional win over Raphael Assuncao and was only edged out by high-level contender Rob Font this summer.

More to the point, it felt like ‘No Love’ would only be risking an already questionable chin by embarking on a huge weight cut. It also felt like the move to 125 pounds might negate his main strength at bantamweight – his speed.

Garbrandt made the flyweight limit with no issues at the event’s weigh-in, but he definitely looked skeletal, which was hardly a surprise given he had already been ripped at 135 pounds. Unfortunately, while he looked confident coming into his clash with Kai Kara-France, he simply didn’t look himself once the octagon door was locked.

Kara-France quickly tagged him with heavy punches, knocking him down twice in the early going. ‘No Love’ could simply not recover. Moments later, ‘Don’t Blink’ caught him with another clean combination and put him away for good.

Quite whether Garbrandt can ever recover from this loss is anyone’s guess right now, but there’s no disputing that this was the worst loss of his UFC career and the move to flyweight was probably a mistake.

#4. B.J. Penn – lightweight to featherweight (various)

BJ Penn's move to featherweight did not go so well for him

Former UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn was always renowned for a willingness to move around in weight. ‘The Prodigy’ won gold in the UFC at lightweight and welterweight. He even fought as highly as 205 pounds during a brief stint in Japan in the mid-2000’s.

However, it’s safe to say that the best run of his career came during his reign as UFC lightweight champion. Penn looked in phenomenal shape and ran through opponents such as Joe Stevenson and Diego Sanchez.

By 2012, though, after already returning from retirement once, it was clear that the Hawaiian’s best days were behind him. After a loss to Rory MacDonald at 170 pounds, he stepped away from the UFC again, only to announce his return two years later.

This time, Penn decided to drop to featherweight to face off with old foe Frankie Edgar, who’d already beaten ‘The Prodigy’ twice.

Those fights had been relatively close, though, something that couldn’t be said about their third meeting. Penn visually looked healthy at 145 pounds, but it was clear his body didn’t suit the weight cut and he looked worryingly slow as Edgar dominated him en route to a TKO win.

Stunningly, the Hawaiian then decided to continue competing as a featherweight, suffering a further two one-sided losses before moving back to lightweight for two more.

His UFC career ended on the back of a seven-fight slide and it’s hard not to at least partially blame his move to 145 pounds for his late career woes.

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#3. James Irvin – light heavyweight to middleweight (UFC on Versus 1)

James Irvin looked painfully unhealthy after making the move to 185lbs in 2010

We’ve seen a number of fighters looking skeletal at the UFC’s weigh-ins following a brutal weight cut, but the fighter who arguably looked the worst on the scale was James Irvin.

‘The Sandman’ initially competed in the UFC as a small heavyweight, but eventually found success as a 205lber. Sure, he never became a true title contender, but he picked up some strong wins and landed highlight reel knockouts of Terry Martin and Houston Alexander along the way.

After testing positive for a pair of banned painkillers following his loss to Anderson Silva in 2008, Irvin was suspended by the UFC. When he returned in 2010, fans were stunned to hear that he would be competing as a middleweight.

The move seemed baffling from the off, as the 6’2” Irvin was incredibly lean at 205 pounds and hardly had weight to lose. Sure enough, he came into the weigh-in for his fight with Alessio Sakara looking absolutely drained, with his cheekbones sunk in like a corpse.

That would’ve been acceptable had Irvin looked good in the octagon, but instead, he simply looked like a shadow of the explosive fighter he’d once been. After eating a right hook from Sakara that appeared to connect with his eye, he basically folded, forcing a TKO stoppage in the first round.

Irvin would never again fight at middleweight, although his career barely recovered afterwards anyway, making it worth questioning what kind of damage such a dramatic weight cut might’ve caused him.

#2. Diego Sanchez – lightweight to featherweight (UFC Fight Night 78)

Already ripped at 155lbs, Diego Sanchez struggled when he moved down to 145lbs

Only two fighters in UFC history have competed in four different weight classes. TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez is one of them.

However, while ‘The Nightmare’ won the reality show at middleweight and then had plenty of success at welterweight and lightweight it’s probably fair to say that his move to featherweight in 2015 didn’t go so well for him.

Given that Sanchez was always pretty skinny at 155 pounds, quite why he chose to drop a further 10 pounds was anyone’s business. One thing was for sure, he definitely didn’t look all that healthy at the weigh-in for his clash with Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night 78.

However, the stakes were high for Sanchez. At the time, Lamas’ only losses in the UFC had come against Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. Were ‘The Nightmare’ to pull off a win over him, he would’ve been an instant contender for the UFC featherweight title.

Unfortunately, the fight went badly for the veteran, who simply couldn’t do anything against Lamas. ‘The Bully’ prevented his takedowns, abused him with brutal leg kicks and left ‘The Nightmare’ basically neutered.

Sanchez wound up suffering a lopsided decision loss and, unsurprisingly, after spending a year on the shelf, he returned to 155 pounds and never again ventured down to the featherweight division.

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#1. T.J. Dillashaw – bantamweight to flyweight (UFC Fight Night 143)

T.J. Dillashaw's move to 125lbs in 2019 completely derailed his UFC career

Perhaps the greatest example of a UFC fighter making a grave error in attempting to look for success in a lighter weight class is T.J. Dillashaw.

When Dillashaw regained the UFC bantamweight title from bitter rival Cody Garbrandt in late 2017 and then defended it successfully against ‘No Love’ in a rematch in 2018, he was essentially on top of the world.

However, rather than continue to defend his title at 135 pounds, Dillashaw decided to drop to flyweight in an attempt to become one of the few UFC fighters to hold gold simultaneously in two weight divisions.

The UFC booked him against flyweight champion Henry Cejudo at UFC Fight Night 143. Leading up to the fight, rumours swirled around that if Dillashaw were to win, the UFC would cut the flyweight division altogether. However, Dillashaw came into the fight looking drained and skeletal, immediately worrying UFC fans.

Sure enough, just seconds into the clash, Cejudo caught the bantamweight kingpin with a flurry of strikes that had him wobbled and simply unable to recover. Dillashaw folded and his attempt to claim another UFC title was over after just 32 seconds.

Things got even worse after the fight, though, when it was revealed that Dillashaw had tested positive for the banned substance EPO, a drug he’d likely used in order to successfully make the 125-pound flyweight limit.

Dillashaw was duly stripped of his UFC bantamweight crown and suspended for two years, essentially leaving his career in tatters. Based on this, it seems highly likely that he regrets ever making the move to flyweight in the first place.