Blatant favoritism when a popular fighter misses weight

[Paolo Delutis]

Problem is, they're not smart - at least, not when it comes to cutting weight. Weigh-ins are the day before because if they weren't, you'd start seeing people die in the octagon.

Lol no you wouldn't...

Almost all martial competition follow the same day weigh in ruling ... and there arent deaths..(jiu-jitsu, Olympic wrestling,karate,judo,even older boxing matches etc)

The day before weigh in non sense is a modern thing ... And it wasnt based in safety it was based on marketing and money... Just another event to sell tickets and advertisement space to sponsors and attendees and to allow room for card changes..it wasn't done for safety

 

[nostradumbass]

The Islam one isn't a "super obvious example", he's never missed weight.

 

[Harlekin]

Islam either gets the Abu Davi scale or the half second weigh in, scale never stops.

 

[Fergelmince]

Yea, the excuses people make for Charles just cause he’s popular is pretty delusional. And the hate islam gets with nothing but rumours too. it’s just favouritism. I mean, it’s not like charles’ win over gaethje is any less impressive becuase he came in a half pound over

The hate isn't based on "nothing but rumours..."

 

[checktheknuckles]

I heard that Abdu Dhabi let's Makhchev pack his gloves with plaster, that's why he was able to knockdown the famously iron-chinned Oliviera.

Frankly, I'm appalled by all the cheating. They should have let Volk wear a helmet during their second fight.

It would be cool if they let the fighter get to bring in one prop, like a helmet, plaster gloves, steel toe boots, etc. Would definitely buy ppvs then. even watch wmma.

 

[RonDante]

The hate isn't based on "nothing but rumours..."

It’s a heart medicine, for a heart surgery. You could even see the scar on his chest back then

 

[Fergelmince]

It’s a heart medicine, for a heart surgery. You could even see the scar on his chest back then

WADA banned it when they found out hundreds of Russian athletes were taking it for performance enhancement.

 

[RonDante]

WADA banned it when they found out hundreds of Russian athletes were taking it for performance enhancement.

doesnt change that it’s a heart medicine and he had a heart surgery. Adderall is also banned, so does that mean it’s not a medicine with a legitimate therapeutic use?

 

[Fergelmince]

doesnt change that it’s a heart medicine and he had a heart surgery. Adderall is also banned, so does that mean it’s not a medicine with a legitimate therapeutic use?

So he magically didn't need the medication anymore after they banned it?

 

[RonDante]

So he magically didn't need the medication anymore after they banned it?

I won’t pretend I know what meldonium does, but you can’t pretend you do either. All I know right now is it’s for heart surgeries and he had a heart surgery. He’s using it for what it’s intended. What I do know is that its not even a particularly good PED, so if he was risking his career to take things he wouldn’t be using meldonium, which is a heart medicine for a man who had a heart surgery.

 

[IronGolem007]

Bro went to bed on weight the night before. This .5 lb meant he had to beat JG as the visitor, for the right to face Islam....as the visitor.

If he makes weight, He has far more leverage to face Islam in Rio rather than UAE.

That was the worst.

Oliveira should never have been stripped for that BS.

That took away from his legacy, and it wasn't fair.

 

[rjmbrd]

It’s a heart medicine, for a heart surgery. You could even see the scar on his chest back then

Islam had RF ablation in 2014, which is an outpatient procedure to correct ventricular arrhythmia. His claim was that a full year later in December 2015, a doctor instructed him to take meldonium, and he only took it for 4 weeks, prior to his PEDS flag.

If you believe that story I've got a bridge to sell you.

The drug is generally used for ischemia / atherosclerosis (read: heart failure) and YOLO taking it a year after an ablation would be considered odd at best.

It also just happens to be an extraordinarily popular PED in Russia that can improve athletic endurance.

 

[Fergelmince]

I won’t pretend I know what meldonium does, but you can’t pretend you do either. All I know right now is it’s for heart surgeries and he had a heart surgery. He’s using it for what it’s intended. What I do know is that its not even a particularly good PED, so if he was risking his career to take things he wouldn’t be using meldonium, which is a heart medicine for a man who had a heart surgery.

Meldonium ALSO enhances athletic performances, and was very hard to get outside of Russia. A TON of Russian athletes were using it before the ban for athletic performance enhancement, and some, like Maria Sharapova received a 2 year ban later on. There are other drugs that do what meldonium does for his heart condition, but the fact he went to the one that also enhances your athletic performance is highly suspect when you combine that with the knowledge that it was a Russian drug, and hard to get in the West.

As far as his heart condition, he said he needed an ablation so it was most likely an arrhythmia or similar, which open heart surgery is very very very unlikely. They almost always go in with a catheter through the wrist or the major blood vessel near the groin and perform what's called an ablation on the problem part of the heart. The only reason they wouldn't go in with a catheter is if they were already going to do bypass surgery or repair an artery directly next to the heart. So even the "scar on his chest" is suspect.

So when you put all the pieces together, he was most likely using it for athletic perfomance enhancement, got caught, along with a ton of other Russian athletes, and he probably moved on to some other PED. It's the way professional athletics are today.

In addition, as mentioned several times in this thread alone, Makachev was willing to use a very very friendly scale in Abu Dhabi (more than once, I think) so he's not above using people, or the system, or anything else including a PED to help him get what he wants in MMA.

 

[Question]

Khamzat Vs Holland.

Holland was cutting to 170lbs, Khamzat stopped at 180lbs and they made it a "catch-weight" and then Khamzat wrecks the smaller Holland and all the Khamzat fans are calling for a 170lb title shot.

That's not true, Holland's original fight on that card against D-Rod was set for a catch weight at 180lbs due to how short notice it was(bout was made official around three weeks before fight day). Holland wasn't aiming for the welterweight limit on that card.

When Khamzat missed weight by a crazy amount at 179lbs(from what I remember), they just rearranged the fights to Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson(both made 170/welterweight), Khamzat vs Kevin Holland(both weighed in at approximately 180, although Khamzat was aiming for the welterweight limit) and Leech/D-Rod(Leech made 170/welterweight and D-Rod was at 180 which is what he was aiming for his original catch weight fight with Holland).

So the guy who got fucked over the most was Leech. Guy made welterweight and was suppose to fight Ferguson, but had to instead had to fight a guy who cut ten pounds less on a day's notice and lost a close fight.
Plus he bought a nice suit for the press conference he wasn't able to show after it was cancelled.

 

[Snake_bite]

Or a better way to put it is Oliveira had a whole day where the scale was inaccurate casuing him to miscalcalculate and miss weight by .5lbs. That seems very reasonable to me and if it had not happened he very likely would have made weight. The UFC should have people checking the accuracy of the test scale at the beginning and end of every day or anytime someone changes it from lbs to kgs. It can't be that hard to just have one person during fight week make sure it's accurate.

I'm pretty sure Oliveira didn't start that Friday at .5lbs over, that's what his last failed attempt was.

Funny how that same scale did not affect Gaethjes calculations.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Funny how that same scale did not affect Gaethjes calculations.

Gaethje is known for not cutting much weight.

 

[cade187]

The GSP and Makhachev examples are just based on rumors which weakens your overall point: that the UFC often gives popular fighters more leeway (in the case of fighters like Jones, waaaayy more leeway) and not just with making weight.

There is no proof of IV use and 'favorable conditions regarding his weight cut' is about as vague as it gets.

He is not the biggest LW and he is not the only one who has hard weight cuts. You can find clips of Charles' team doing seance around him as he lays there exhausted during a weight cut.

Makhachev hasn't missed weight ever, whether in the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, or UAE. He has had a grand total of 4 out of 15 UFC fights in the UAE.

The GSP-Diaz Controversy was no rumour. The Montreal commission made up a rule that had never been used before (OR since!) so they’re hometown hero could fight.

“We just drop the decimal.” That rule makes no sense, and didn’t exist anywhere in writing, and never existed anywhere prior to GSP’s weigh in.