If all goes according to plan, Chris Weidman will be the new fighter on Friday.

The former UFC Middleweight champion is moving up to 205 pounds for the first time, and even if he has only one win in the previous four years, There’s reason to believe HES only one impressive performance from turning his fortunes around.

Hell be in a tough fight against Dominic, a rising light heavyweight opponent who is a perfect 11-0 as a professional with five straight wins in the octagon. But Weidman is no stranger to high challenges, fighting Ronaldo Jacare Souza, Calvin Gastelum, Gegard musasi, Yoel Romero, and Luke Rockhold in the last five fights.

While his was an ugly stretch for the 35-year-old Weidman, who of those five only managed to beat Gastelum after 13 straight wins, his coach ray Longo prefers to think that the all-American is not far from his peak, and that removing the brutal weight cut from the equation can only help him.

He did well in all those fights and its hard to tell if that was the difference, Longo told MMA Fighting when asked if his team ever felt he should move to light heavyweight before. So were going to find out (on Friday). I don’t want to believe it was a difference, but it could have been, it definitely could have been. At this stage when these guys are on, every fight is a big fight, you fight the best guys and things have to be squared away.

You see, Champions lose, a guy like Rashad Evans, (and) There’s a lot of guys that just cant get back on track (like) johnny Hendrix. Mentally his very, very tough. Everyone is trying to go up, going down, so I think it’s going to be a big step for Chris and Im excited about it and good to see what’s going on.

I don’t know with those other fights if it was a weight thing, (but) it very well could have been. Heres one thing that is fact: weight Reduction is not good for you. I don’t give s s’ it who you are. Some guys deal with it better, but There’s no way frying your body like this is good.

Weidman has not competed heavier than 185 pounds since before his UFC days. He joins a number of notable middleweights moving up the division, including past opponents Jacare and Rockhold. Jacare has yet to make his light heavyweight debut, and Rockhold has fared poorly in his, suffering a second-round knockout loss to Jan Blachowicz in July. Transplant team member Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos became title contenders after jumping up to 205 pounds.

Its unclear if Weidman will end up on the same track as Smith or Santos, or if he ends up like his old rival Rockhold. His coach is confident that at least Weidman will likely enter fight night in better health, which is an important factor given fighters past injurywoes.

He always kind of talked about “going light heavyweight,” so I don’t remember when he first came up, Longo said. Im excited to see how it feels at 205, I think its going to make a big difference. Hes looking great now and HES not having to kill his body to get to 205.

As these guys get older, that becomes a problem. You can have an injury that feels good when you start doing weight, you dehydrate your body and suddenly injuries to the back (of their) ugly head, so Im happy to see what happens to it. Right now, he looks good, (and) he feels good.

Its not just a change of scenery for Weidman, who has declared his intention to become the first man to earn a true victory over current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Its boast that made for an attractive headline, even if its something that Longo doesn’t want to start discussing seriously until they see how Weidman fares against Reyes.

I don’t even bring it up because I want to focus on Dominic Reyes, and that’s a conversation we have any time he comes, Longo said. Hes got one goal to get Dominic Reyes, (and) then Im open to everything.