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

#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.