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Right now the penalty for missing weight is 20%.
The problem is that the penalty isn't sufficiently penalizing the wrong behavior. There may be fighters who know that they aren't going to make weight, so instead of taxing their bodies through the brutal process, they come in heavy and hydrated, pay the 20% fine, but are less drained on fight night.
One really easy way to increase the accountability for making weight is to increase the penalty to, say, 50%. That would deter fighters from making unrealistic late weight cuts or trying to fight in a weight class they would struggle mightily to make weight at.
The other approach would be to scale the penalty based on how far weight is missed. So if you miss by 10 pounds, you get a massive penalty compared to someone who only missed by 5 pounds or 1 pound. This is the more complex solution.
The problem is that the penalty isn't sufficiently penalizing the wrong behavior. There may be fighters who know that they aren't going to make weight, so instead of taxing their bodies through the brutal process, they come in heavy and hydrated, pay the 20% fine, but are less drained on fight night.
One really easy way to increase the accountability for making weight is to increase the penalty to, say, 50%. That would deter fighters from making unrealistic late weight cuts or trying to fight in a weight class they would struggle mightily to make weight at.
The other approach would be to scale the penalty based on how far weight is missed. So if you miss by 10 pounds, you get a massive penalty compared to someone who only missed by 5 pounds or 1 pound. This is the more complex solution.