Longtime lightweight top 10 contender Edson Barboza is welcoming in the new decade by dropping down to featherweight.
That’s the word according to his manager, Alex Davis, who told mmafighting.com that the weight cut, “shouldn’t be hard at all. But we will see.”
The 33-year-old has been struggling to stay in the win column over the past couple of years, losing four of last five fights in the lightweight division.
Those defeats have all come against top-flight competition though, starting with a unanimous decision loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, followed by a TKO stoppage loss to Kevin Lee. A TKO win over Dan Hooker gave some brief respite, but then came a knockout defeat against Justin Gaethje and then most recently a split decision loss to Paul Felder in September.
Despite that poor run Barboza still holds down the No.10 spot on the lightweight rankings thanks to his broader body of work over the years, which currently leaves him with a 14-7 UFC record.
At this stage there’s no word on who Barboza’s first opponent at 145lbs will be, but there’s certainly plenty of options out there, with intriguing match-ups to be found against the likes of Max Holloway, The Korean Zombie, Zabit Magomedsharipov and Yair Rodriguez to name but a few.
