Fighter suspended for dangerous weight cut! lets talk about weight cutting!

[HavokHarmon]

Just prohibit weight cutting. Adjust weight classes upwards 10 to 20 lbs and require fighters to be on weight within two weeks of the fight at all times. Easy to enforce. Problem solved.

Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not but that seems like it would be incredibly difficult to enforce, as well as something of a logistical nightmare.

 

[no homo]

Can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not but that seems like it would be incredibly difficult to enforce, as well as something of a logistical nightmare.

Couldn't be easier. For example. Let's say light heavyweight gets adjusted to 225 lbs. A light heavyweight fighter just needs to be at or below 225 lbs in the two weeks leading up to the fight.

Similar story for all other weight classes Fighters that get caught heavy can be punished the same they are now after they miss weight.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Couldn't be easier. For example. Let's say light heavyweight gets adjusted to 225 lbs. A light heavyweight fighter just needs to be at or below 225 lbs in the two weeks leading up to the fight.

Similar story for all other weight classes Fighters that get caught heavy can be punished the same they are now after they miss weight.

I get how the numbers work but you’re talking about monitoring every fighter on a card everyday for the two weeks leading up to a fight, and that doesn’t seem realistic to me.

 

[FEDORFAN44]

I might have the same condition, something very similar happened to me only I drank 23 white claws instead of cutting weight

Virtually identical

 

[RonMachineGunJhun]

 

[smart.feller]

Flip it around. You miss weight? You don't fight and you don't get paid. Your opponent gets paid their show, win bonus, and your salary and all you get is the memory of the miles you didn't run and the hamburgers you ate.

 

[wwkirk]

Flip it around. You miss weight? You don't fight and you don't get paid. Your opponent gets paid their show, win bonus, and your salary and all you get is the memory of the miles you didn't run and the hamburgers you ate.

Well, of course no one would ever fight overweight under those rules. The flip side is that in 100% of instances where a fighter misses weight, he'll just pull out. You could even get the identical result if the promotion just cancelled every fight where a fighter misses weight.

Is this what you'd prefer?

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I hate just putting "suspended" in the headline or thread title, it's a medical suspension not a disciplinary one. He didn't get in trouble for posting the video.

What are you talking about? He did get in trouble. He was suspended and fined, and his cornermen got their licenses suspended too. Also, it's obviously bile.

Honestly, this looks like a case of an athletic director pulling some PR stunt because an extremely common thing that he already knows extremely well about but pretends to not know because he and anyone in his position don't really gives a shit about, and never having done anything to stop it before just went and made up their own decision to arbitrarily punish this guy only cuz he posted about it.

“Something needs to be done to deter extreme weight cutting,” Mazzulli said. “After looking at that video, I was appalled that a fighter would go that extent to lose weight. It’s a sad commentary that a fighter would go to that extent to lose that kind of weight and feel that it’s a badge of honor to do it. I thought we’d come a long way since 2002 and we no longer allow rubber suits, IV rehydration, but we still have fighters doing what he did. My biggest problem is what is he showing the amateur fighter that looks up to him as an elite fighter. It’s not OK. It’s no longer OK. It’s unacceptable. And I would never have known it unless he posted it. Which is sad because he fought at Mohegan, it’s my duty to do something. He doesn’t understand the ramification of what could happen in the future. Renal failure, kidney failure... I try to stress to these fighters, take care of what you have.”

Be careful with what you post for consumption boy and girls....

We know that cutting weight is dangerous, but the MMA community doesn’t need idiots posting exactly what they put themselves through to get there ffs.
<{cruzshake}>
Shame on you Mr. Adam Peckerinni

Ignorance is bliss?

Of course I agree that something needs to be done about this pointless and dangerous practise of weight cutting in combat sports...it is *ridiculous* that this has not been stamped out yet.

Having said that, the most embarrassing part of this whole thing is Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation director Mike Mazzulli stating that "[a]fter looking at that video, I was appalled that a fighter would go that extent to lose weight.”

Either Mazzulli is simply lying about his knowledge (i.e. he is well aware that this type of thing happens all the time and is just covering his own ass because the vid was posted) or he is a clueless jackass who has no business being the director of the agency responsible for sanctioning fight. Either way, his statement reflects very poorly on himself, IMHO.

Unfortunately, I suspect this kind of punishment for the fighter and his team will have *zero* effect on the actual practise of weight cutting and will merely remind them to be more discrete about it by not posting pics and vids, even after the fight.

Exactly. Pointless grandstanding only because it was public this time.

I've banged this drum several times, but I'll say it again. Allowing extreme weight cutting is both more unfairly advantageous and more dangerous to the fighters than allowing PED's.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

Fight closer to your weight. It's their choice to try and cut massive amounts of weight trying to get an advantage. Be more confident in beating fighters closer to your size or bigger and these type of issues will go away.

 

[markg171]

Weight cutting is stupid. What's the advantage if you're both cutting weight anyways??

Just because you both weigh in at 155 or whatever doesn't mean you're all the same size or cut the same weight to get there. That's where the weight cutting comes in. For example, on my old high school wrestling team myself and 3 other team mates were all in the same class and all roughly the same height. We were nothing alike body size though and it showed.

• I was the biggest, strongest, and heaviest of us. I cut 22lbs once at my heaviest.
• The 2nd guy was year round cut like a Greek god. He cut 8-10lbs.
• The 3rd guy had super lanky limbs but had quads like tree trunks. He cut 5lbs.
• The 4th guy was just your regular Joe. He cut 0lbs.

Put us in a lineup and you'd never have said we were all in the same weight class. Because we really weren't. But we were all competing in the same weight class and guys 3-4 were definitely frustrated at the size difference while the 2nd mostly wasn't because he was also big and muscular (plus he was also an actual long time wrestler, not just started in HS like us). I wasn't the most technical and didn't beat them all the time, but like 90% of the time I did as I could just stonewall them if nothing else. Most of my losses to them came from gassing out and them only taking over after that.

And even then, there's still always someone bigger. I remember one tournament I got matched up against this one guy in the semis and I remember looking at him thinking he must've been 20-30lbs bigger than me. Let alone how much bigger he'd have been had he instead been against any of my team mates. I thought someone was pulling my leg/the other school had cheaply swapped out wrestlers he was so big. That was by far the hardest barnburner match I ever had and he pushed me to my absolute limits. I remember by the end I was just on auto pilot and thinking "just finish him, you have to end this" and somehow finally pinned him with like 7 seconds left. I just rolled over trying not to die. Legit was seeing black spots, couldn't hear a thing, disoriented, and if I hadn't managed to look over at my coach and seen and somehow understood him silently but intensely imploring me to get up and just make it through the winners declaration and get out of there ASAP I'd probably have been medically pulled as I was probably about to go unconscious if I just kept laying there. I still don't know how I made it through it and then off the mat back to our corner, I just knew I had to get out of there and so I did so completely on auto pilot.

If some other things hadn't happened in my life I'd say that's easily the closest I've ever come to death and all it took was a guy "bigger" than me who also knew what he was doing. I handily lost my next match against someone I easily should've beaten as I just had nothing left after that.

Weight cutting advantages are very real.

 

[HunterAcosta]

Do you even Rumble Johnson bro ?!

 

[Sticko]

What are you talking about? He did get in trouble. He was suspended and fined, and his cornermen got their licenses suspended too. Also, it's obviously bile.

Honestly, this looks like a case of an athletic director pulling some PR stunt because an extremely common thing that he already knows extremely well about but pretends to not know because he and anyone in his position don't really gives a shit about, and never having done anything to stop it before just went and made up their own decision to arbitrarily punish this guy only cuz he posted about it.

I stand corrected, the article I read at first didn't say anything about a fine and I must have missed the part where it said his corners were suspended.

The article said he needed clearance from a nephrologist to return to competition so I took that as a medical suspension but apparently that's not the case.

I'm fine with this guy getting punished tbh, extreme weight cutting is a problem, and people bragging about a dangerous weight cut is a bad look for the sport. It also sounds like this cut was worse/more dangerous than a typical cut.

Sometimes I think tribal commissions kind of get a bad rap for letting promotions do things the state commission wouldn't have, so glad this one took action.

 

[Snowblindlove]

Just prohibit weight cutting. Adjust weight classes upwards 10 to 20 lbs and require fighters to be on weight within two weeks of the fight at all times. Easy to enforce. Problem solved.

Or just hydration testing day of and day before and 2 days before fight. Also urine test day before and day of testing hydration level

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I stand corrected, the article I read at first didn't say anything about a fine and I must have missed the part where it said his corners were suspended.

The article said he needed clearance from a nephrologist to return to competition so I took that as a medical suspension but apparently that's not the case.

I'm fine with this guy getting punished tbh, extreme weight cutting is a problem, and people bragging about a dangerous weight cut is a bad look for the sport. It also sounds like this cut was worse/more dangerous than a typical cut.

Sometimes I think tribal commissions kind of get a bad rap for letting promotions do things the state commission wouldn't have, so glad this one took action.

Ah, tbf I read the mmafighting article the other day, I didn't see that the source here was mmajunkie and they don't mention the fine.

I got no problem with actions like this being the standard, I despise the whole weight cutting thing too. But while this cut did look to be on the bad end, it's not the worst and definitely not uncommon. And it's a thing that happens right in front of them frequently, so it really feels to me like they're saving face more than caring about fighter safety. I'd feel maybe more comfortable about this if I read something on what kind of code or provision or whatever specifically calls for this kind of punishment being doled out and not that it's just another example of the ultimate power commissions can arbitrarily throw about, which is a different problem with MMA entirely.

If they have some wording in their licensure that specially cites this kind of offense, fantastic. If they don't, then a random fine and suspension doesn't mean anything to me until they write it, and seems a little unfair to the guy who did something that isn't specifically forbidden, no matter how much we all know it's bullshit

 

[no homo]

I get how the numbers work but you’re talking about monitoring every fighter on a card everyday for the two weeks leading up to a fight, and that doesn’t seem realistic to me.

You don't need to monitor them all the time. Just apart from the weigh ins at one or two random unanounced moments put them on a scale. Similar to testing for dope, only a lot cheaper and easier.

 

[HavokHarmon]

You don't need to monitor them all the time. Just apart from the weigh ins at one or two random unanounced moments put them on a scale. Similar to testing for dope, only a lot cheaper and easier.

Well you’d need to give them SOME kind of warning. A persons weight fluctuates through the day, especially if they’re training. Back when I was younger (and a good deal smaller) I would reliably gain and lose 10lbs a day so if the range is narrow and there isn’t any warning (or very little) this would lead to a lot of misses even by diligent fighters.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

you can never get rid of weight cutting as long as there is weight classes. humans naturally always try to find a way to cheat the system. even in OneFC with their hydration testing or whatever there's guy that look enormous compared to their opponents.

the only way to get rid of weight cutting is to get rid of weight classes.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

You don't need to monitor them all the time. Just apart from the weigh ins at one or two random unanounced moments put them on a scale. Similar to testing for dope, only a lot cheaper and easier.

that will just cause fighters to try and cut weight earlier for a longer period of time.

 

[no homo]

Well you’d need to give them SOME kind of warning. A persons weight fluctuates through the day, especially if they’re training. Back when I was younger (and a good deal smaller) I would reliably gain and lose 10lbs a day so if the range is narrow and there isn’t any warning (or very little) this would lead to a lot of misses even by diligent fighters.

No. If you fight at 220 lbs and your weight swings 10 lbs, just make sure it swings between 210 and 220 lbs.

 

[no homo]

that will just cause fighters to try and cut weight earlier for a longer period of time.

You think they can stay dehydrated for two weeks straight?