The UFC should put hard 7.5% rehydration limits on weight

Alpha_T83

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I think it's ridiculous how much weight MMA fighters cut. This has been discussed to death, but eventually someone is going to outright die from weight cuts in the UFC. And weight cutting makes the brain more vulnerable to TBI's, which is detrimental to a fighters long term health.

Why don't they just implement hard 7.5% rehydration caps? For example, if you fight at 170, 7.5% of 170 is 12.75 pounds. Thus, welterweight fighters shouldn't under any circumstance be allowed to walk into the cage heavier than 182.75 pounds. Obviously this is just an example -- you could up that number to 10% rehydration (187 pound hard limit for walk-in to cage at welterweight), at least to start.

Also, regardless of whether this is implemented -- every fighter should be weighed walking into the cage, and their weight published. We should know exactly how much each fighter weighs in the cage. This public information would at least help start a dialogue on extreme weight cutting.
 
Yep, this can easily be accomplished by weighing the fighter again as they step into the octagon. You don't have to cancel the fight if they are over-weight; just take away 50% of their purse (1st offense), and then 75% for 2nd offense onward.

They will quickly learn it's not worth it, just like using PEDs in the USADA era.
 
Because fighters will do whatever is necessary to get that advantage, and will just monitor how much they rehydrate before stepping into the cage - which is more dangerous than having them dehydrate themselves 24 hours before.

Also, the UFC will never have fight night weights public, they like to sell certain narratives about how big/small certain fighters are.
 
I agree that the weight cutting issue in MMA needs to be addressed in a more professional way in the future. Seems like a can of worms the UFC doesn’t want to open lol.
 
Because fighters will do whatever is necessary to get that advantage, and will just monitor how much they rehydrate before stepping into the cage - which is more dangerous than having them dehydrate themselves 24 hours before.

Also, the UFC will never have fight night weights public, they like to sell certain narratives about how big/small certain fighters are.

The fight night weight doesn't have to be made public. And why would someone fight dehydrated just to gain a few extra lbs? That negates any advantage they would have.
 
Because fighters will do whatever is necessary to get that advantage, and will just monitor how much they rehydrate before stepping into the cage - which is more dangerous than having them dehydrate themselves 24 hours before.

Also, the UFC will never have fight night weights public, they like to sell certain narratives about how big/small certain fighters are.

And they'll learn the hard way that doesn't work. If they try to dehydrate themselves walking into the cage, their cardio will suck and they'll lose. Fighters will do anything to get an advantage, but dehydrating on fight day is not going to give you an advantage.

Fighters are smart. They'll learn quickly and adapt.
 
Is it a weight cutting issue, or is it a discipline issue?
 
Is it a weight cutting issue, or is it a discipline issue?

Definitely weight cutting. These guys have to have tons of discipline to cut the weight they do. Just imagine a fighter cutting 5 pounds to make 170, having to fight GSP or Woodley, who cut 25-30 pounds.

If you weigh 175, you're at a 20-25 pound weight disadvantage. That's why these guys cut weight, to gain a competitive advantage.
 
The fight night weight doesn't have to be made public. And why would someone fight dehydrated just to gain a few extra lbs? That negates any advantage they would have.

I know being a former college wrestler that it never stopped us from cutting weight with weigh ins the same day as matches
 
Definitely weight cutting. These guys have to have tons of discipline to cut the weight they do. Just imagine a fighter cutting 5 pounds to make 170, having to fight GSP or Woodley, who cut 25-30 pounds.

If you weigh 175, you're at a 20-25 pound weight disadvantage. That's why these guys cut weight, to gain a competitive advantage.
My point on discipline is some of these fighters, for example, who fights at 155 saying they weigh 190-200lbs when they aren't fighting.
Yes, I get that it is fat % offseason. But still.
 
Definitely weight cutting. These guys have to have tons of discipline to cut the weight they do. Just imagine a fighter cutting 5 pounds to make 170, having to fight GSP or Woodley, who cut 25-30 pounds.

If you weigh 175, you're at a 20-25 pound weight disadvantage. That's why these guys cut weight, to gain a competitive advantage.

"POWER TEST: VERTICAL JUMP


Baseline: 31.7 inches
After Dehydration: 27.6 inches
Re-hydrated: 29 inches

STRENGTH ENDURANCE TEST: 225-POUND BENCH PRESS

Baseline: 15 reps
After Dehydration: 5 reps
Rehydrated: 12 reps

ENDURANCE TEXT: MAX TIME ON TREADMILL

Baseline: 3 minutes and 14 seconds of sprinting at 8mph with 6% incline
After Dehydration: 1 minute and 28 seconds of sprinting at 8mph with 3% incline
Rehydrated: 3 minutes and 25 seconds of sprinting at 8mph with 6% incline"

it effects athlete a little bit.
 
Definitely weight cutting. These guys have to have tons of discipline to cut the weight they do. Just imagine a fighter cutting 5 pounds to make 170, having to fight GSP or Woodley, who cut 25-30 pounds.

If you weigh 175, you're at a 20-25 pound weight disadvantage. That's why these guys cut weight, to gain a competitive advantage.
Hendricks, Gastelum, and Lineker have absolutely horrible discipline when it comes to diet.
 
As with Lomachenko vs Rigondeaux, they were weighed again in the morning prior to the fight to make sure one fighter hadn't had an insane re-hydration weight gain after breakfast.
 
Great post, I wholeheartedly agree.

It shouldn't be that Mcgregor (although I do enjoy his fights and would even call myself a fan to an extent) is so publicly known and loved when a masvidal who's actually around the same size, is known by maybe 1/100th the people. If information like this was publicized the people who take DON'T advantage of things like weight cuts would be more known.

Sadly though the UFC greatly values their ability to distort reality to whatever is most profitable, and hiding metrics such as these allows them to build highly inaccurate narratives to dress their desired fighters in, while subsequently undermining badasses like masvidal and wonderboy who barely cut weight at all but the populous doesn't know that so it doesn't make those guys more impressive when it absolutely should.

Guys who fight around their true weight deserve respect, or maybe the guys who DO cut huge weight should receive LESS respect then they currently receive.
 
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I know being a former college wrestler that it never stopped us from cutting weight with weigh ins the same day as matches

It's exactly why it's the same day and it's an NCAA rule. http://www.ncaa.org/playing-rules/wrestling-rules-game

They are even clamping down harder than ever: http://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/...-rules-committee-recommends-stiffer-penalties

The NCAA didn't want me or you to die or have organ failure like they saw over and over again in the Olympics and Pan Am games.

12lbs was a big cut from what I remember. We are talking about guys going 30lbs+ fighting at 155lbs! In 24 hours.
 
It's exactly why it's the same day and it's an NCAA rule. http://www.ncaa.org/playing-rules/wrestling-rules-game

They are even clamping down harder than ever: http://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/...-rules-committee-recommends-stiffer-penalties

The NCAA didn't want me or you to die or have organ failure like they saw over and over again in the Olympics and Pan Am games.

12lbs was a big cut from what I remember. We are talking about guys going 30lbs+ fighting at 155lbs! In 24 hours.

I understand come from some one now at 32 who's now had kidney problems. I agree the weight cutting issue needs to be addressed granted I'm not sure how the right way is to go about it because there will always be people looking to gain a competitive edge.
 
if they wanted to make fighters fight at close to their natural weight the best way to do it is to weigh them in camp randomly sometime in the last 2 weeks or so and if they aren't close enough give part of their purse to their opponents.
 
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