If you aren’t familiar with the story of Goldilocks to put it shortly she tries porridge from 3 different bears until she finds one that’s “just right” to her liking whereas the others were too hot or too cold. This is my MMA version where I’d like your guys opinions and will be sharing my own on whether or not UFC lightweights could move down in weight and find success, should move up to find more success or are just right where they are. To some extent I’ll also factor in how fun the fights would be if they were to move/stay. TOO COLD = MOVE DOWN TOO HOT = MOVE UP (C) 🇬🇪 Ilia Topuria - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: So dense it’s insane no surprise he’d never want or be able to make 45 again definitely could go up to 170 but it’d be a question of how much weight could he really put on efficiently at this point considering his stature. He’s safe where he is imo. (IC) 🇺🇸 Justin Gaethje - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Now if you read the rest of the list you’ll see reasons for others that you’ll probably wonder why they don’t apply to Gaethje but let me explain. Obviously he’d never be able to make 145 and although a 170 move isn’t out of the question I feel like with his age it’d do more harm than good. It’s a big game of maybes. Maybe his chin and recovery are a bit better? Maybe his power increases a little? I think when he has aspirations like he does and has just beaten a top contender there’d be no real reason tapering to if, buts and maybes. (2) 🇦🇲 Arman Tsarukyan - TOO COLD Reasoning: This could be a stretch but with Arman being snubbed over title shot opportunities twice he may as well try his luck at 145. Yes he’s a massive 155er but with all the money and equipment at his disposal I don’t doubt he could make the weight with a dialed in team and there’s some really interesting matchups for him there. (3) 🇧🇷 Charles Olivera - TOO HOT Reasoning: Yes Charles did just dominate 2 lightweight contenders, has perfected his weight cuts and looks stronger than ever BUT there’s really no more interesting fights for him at lightweight it’s mainly rematches that I don’t entirely favor him in. Considering he has the BMF strap as well and is aging a move up could be great for more interesting fights and increasing his longevity. (4) 🇺🇸 Max Holloway - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Pains me to say this but Max’s chin isn’t at all like what it was, he could probably hang with a lot of the 170 guys from skill alone if he bulked up again despite his reach disadvantage but he’s just be so easy to crack (pause). Losing to Charles won’t stop him from dominating the rest of lightweight par maybe Arman. (5) 🇫🇷 BSD - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: No shot of this guy moving down, could potentially move up since he’s a pretty big lightweight but the cuts definitely aren’t life or death for him. The pressure and physicality he brings in lightweight will get him far where he lacks in skill. (6) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Paddy Pimblett - ? Reasoning: Genuinely have 0 clue for Paddy, too fat for featherweight (even though he made it earlier in his career), too small for welterweight which you’d think would lead me to say just right but it still feels like unless you’re an old man on the verge of retirement you should beat this guy through physicality alone since his skills don’t match up. Let me know what you guys think 🤣 (7) 🇳🇿 Dan Hooker - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Next to impossible for him to cut down to featherweight again and his performances were abysmal there regardless, at welterweight maybe that lanky build could transfer over well but the differential in striking and grappling is far to great and that 15lbs jump when he’s getting dominated by smaller guys already wouldn’t be great. He’s good where he is, decent performance against BSD solidified it for me. (8) 🇵🇱 Mateusz Gamrot - TOO COLD Reasoning: This take could actually be the biggest shot in the dark here but let me cook. 👨‍🍳 If you didn’t know Mateusz from his pre UFC days it’s unlikely you’d know he actually used to be a 145er. He found great success to becoming KSW champion. Now his chin already is questionable which is why most would say a move to 45 could make it worse but I’m not under the impression he’s cutting a lot of weight at all he always looks fairly fresh at weigh ins and he could dominate the 45 divison with his physicality so why not?! (9) 🇧🇷 Renato Moicano - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Not much too say, weight works well for him at LW. (10) 🇧🇷 Mauricio Ruffy - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Has the power to go up to 170 and find success but he does have a takedown susceptible build if that makes sense to where the 170 grapplers would probably smother him. He’s finding great success so far I don’t think that should be interrupted for a good couple of years. (11) 🇮🇷 Beneil Dariush - TOO HOT Reasoning: Before 322 Beneil hadn’t missed weight in his entire 31 fight career. He’s old and his chin is awful. Theres some fun grappling matches just outside the rankings of welterweight where the weight cut may not take such a toll on him. We’ll have to see how him vs Salkild turns out. (12) 🇦🇿 Rafael Fiziev - TOO COLD Reasoning: Rafa has previously talked about a move to 145 and man would that be great. It seems like he always misses the mark just slightly when he’s fighting the upper echelon of lightweight and from my view it seems to be a matter of physicality - people that just hit a little bit harder, have that little bit of edge in reach and to top it off with his heavy Muay Thai style it doesn’t seem to be an incredibly hard thing to figure out. He is big but not overly huge for the weightclass especially considering he’s 5’8. (13) 🇺🇸 Michael Chandler - TOO HOT Reasoning: Nearing 40 that 155lbs cut won’t get any easier and that’s saying something because speedbag was always a ball of muscle. Although height wise he’d be small the power and speed wouldn’t be that drastic of a shift so he’d be able to bang with some of the smaller WW’s like Buckley or Brady. (14) 🇲🇽 Manuel Torres - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Again not much to say apart from the fact this guy is absolutely shredded, for me that means he doesn’t carry a crazy amount of body fat and is making the weight fairly easily. (15) 🇫🇷 Fares Ziam - JUST RIGHT Reasoning: Quite tall for the division but no trouble making weight.