Are MMA fighters the biggest weight cutters in the history of sports ... or maybe wrestlers? Whos #1

[SeattleFightFan]

Don't follow horse racing but I'm sure it's even worse there as they don't have other technical areas to manipulate. Just mentioned it as it's a sport I'm well versed in that also happens to involve dangerous weight policies for it's competitors.

In F1, it's said that 10kg (22lbs) of weight costs .3 seconds of lap time. Might not seem like much, but that equates to 15 seconds over a 50 lap race, which is a huge winning margin. In 2015 (around the time this sort of issue started to get some focus), the spread between lightest and heavies driver was 59kg (130lbs) to 74kg (167lbs), this time saw some extremely gaunt looking drivers. 2019 introduced new rules to say that the driver and seat must weigh a combined minimum of 80kg (176lbs). The driver + seat rule is to counter centre of gravity manipulation by having an underweight driver and using the positioning of the required excess weight to influence the balance of the car.

For comparison, the American Indycar series has 185lbs (83.9kg) as their targeted driver number, but works it in a slightly different way, as a driver at more than 185lbs has weight removed, all to meet the same point in the middle.

Holy shit. I had no idea that that sport is so efficient that they’re regulating the driver weight lol. Fucking crazy.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Maybe my coaches were just criminals. They blatantly encouraged us to cheat hydration tests etc.

I've met coaches like that. Fortunately they weren't my coaches.

 

[trident]

Wrestlers make weight and then wrestle a few hours later. Theres really only so much you can cut under those circumstances and still perform well enough for the effort to matter. Plus all the regs in place.

UFC fighters have 24+ hours to rehydrate. That re-hydration period allows for a much more drastic cut.

 

[legatoblues]

Holy shit. I had no idea that that sport is so efficient that they’re regulating the driver weight lol. Fucking crazy.

It's absurdly important and the category has been forced to implement regulations to counter dangerous practices from the teams.

Formula 1 is about as ruthless as it gets. The overall weight of the cars is a massive performance factor. In the interest of competition, there is a regulated minimum weight that a car must run at as a total including the driver. Teams would build their cars to such a fine tolerance that the driver needed to be as light as possible to meet that technical requirement. All well and good for those that were naturally smaller, but it resulted in some of the larger (fucks sake, since when is 160-180lbs considered "larger" - lets just say 'normal') sized drivers being severely disadvantaged due to their weight, which in turn meant that due to how extremely sensitive the cars are to weight changes, the teams were placing immense pressure on the drivers to cut weight to meet ridiculous targets.

The practice has effectively been outlawed, but the concept will always remain. Formula 1 is obviously flawed and not for everyone, but elements such as this stand as a perfect example of how insanely cold, calculated and unforgiving it is.

 

[cakemuncher]

<insert_pic_of_Conor_looking_like_death>

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

Not what you're looking for but F1 drivers used to have to starve themselves to keep weight as low as possible for the performance advantage to go with it. New rules came in this year to try and correct that.

The coxswain in rowing as well.

 

[skylolow]

I wrestled for about 12 years of my life and I can honestly say I never saw a ton of crazy weight cutting. Sure, once in awhile you had a teammate that would cut a big chunk but for the most part I found wrestlers stay pretty close to where they need to be. A little sauna work and that was about it the majority of the time.

Remember these MMA guys are doing 20lbs plus in 72 hours in many cases. I rarely saw anything of that level in wrestling in that short amount of time. Mainly cause your wrestling weekly and sometimes multiple events a week. So you didn't have a lot of time to fluctuate much in weight. Saw most of the big cuts at the start of season.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I wrestled for about 12 years of my life and I can honestly say I never saw a ton of crazy weight cutting. Sure, once in awhile you had a teammate that would cut a big chunk but for the most part I found wrestlers stay pretty close to where they need to be. A little sauna work and that was about it the majority of the time.

Remember these MMA guys are doing 20lbs plus in 72 hours in many cases. I rarely saw anything of that level in wrestling in that short amount of time. Mainly causing your wrestling weekly and sometime multiple events a week. So you didn't have a lot of time to fluctuate much in weight. Saw most of the big cuts at the start of season.

I was a natural 173 pounds wrestling at 189 and doing solid as a freshman and sophomore. I never saw any outrageous cutting in HS wrestling.

 

[Gamer2k4]

I was a natural 173 pounds wrestling at 189 and doing solid as a freshman and sophomore. I never saw any outrageous cutting in HS wrestling.

We were only D2, but I only remember one guy in four years actually cutting weight. Everyone else just made sure to have their sub sandwich after the weigh-in instead of before, and they were fine.

 

[fifinex]

What the fuck is this??