How do fighters get "sick" before their fights all the time?

[Paolo Delutis]

 

[Karelinator]

I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that being "at peak physical level" doesn't give you magical immunity to flu, cold, or whatever else.

 

[World eater]

I think it's allowed because there's no clear solution to fixing it and if there was, which I've never heard of a good idea on the topic in how to stop weight cutting, it would probably bring a bag of new problems.

Nobody wants weight cutting, not even the fuckers doing it. But I heard morons on here saying Islam didn't have a size advantage over Volk because they both weighed the same. I found that hilarious, there's a reason why Islam kills himself to make 155lbs and there's a reason why Volk has fought almost entirely at 145lbs...because there's a very real advantage to size and weight cutting in general.

Weight cutting is worst in boxing and mma. Because mma likes to copy from boxing. Ditto the crappy scoring system that works fine for boxing, but not so great in mma. The only solution I see is reduction of time between weighting and fighting. I would do it the same day, 2-3 hours before prelims.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Dehydration can really mess with your stomach, plus I feel like a lot of fighters overdo it with eating after the weigh in. Especially if they were dieting a lot in camp.

 

[JustforBROCK]

There's a reason why athletes are doing athletic shit and youre here posting on sherdog. As long as you understand that you dont need to understand the rest. Just wish the guy's well and move on.

 

[hswrestler]

Imo there is an obvious solution but nobody would like it. Have the usada guy bring a scale to the random checkins and have him post the result online.

I think it's allowed because there's no clear solution to fixing it and if there was, which I've never heard of a good idea on the topic in how to stop weight cutting, it would probably bring a bag of new problems.

Nobody wants weight cutting, not even the fuckers doing it. But I heard morons on here saying Islam didn't have a size advantage over Volk because they both weighed the same. I found that hilarious, there's a reason why Islam kills himself to make 155lbs and there's a reason why Volk has fought almost entirely at 145lbs...because there's a very real advantage to size and weight cutting in general.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Weight cutting is worst in boxing and mma. Because mma likes to copy from boxing. Ditto the crappy scoring system that works fine for boxing, but not so great in mma. The only solution I see is reduction of time between weighting and fighting. I would do it the same day, 2-3 hours before prelims.

Wrestlers cut less weight but even when they weigh in and then hop onto the mats, they're still cutting. And if you're cutting without the opportunity to rehydrate, you're putting your brain health at serious, immediate risk. It's why in striking sports they do not do this, you must give the athlete time after weighing in. So this isn't a good idea realistically, unless you can find a way to enforce the prevention of weight cutting to go along with it.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Imo there is an obvious solution but nobody would like it. Have the usada guy bring a scale to the random checkins and have him post the result online.

This isn't a solution either. Weight fluctuates. Fighters who want to be in peak physical shape can often reach sub 10% body fat but it doesn't mean that they will maintain 8% body fat year round or be in that shape at the beginning or even necessarily the middle of camps. Some fighters as we know also get very overweight, when Khabibs 195lbs, he isn't in fighting shape..that's not the kind of weight cutting we are worried about either, that's weight loss....We are worried about the few days before the fight when a guy dehydrates 10-20+lbs from their body to weigh in and then puts it back on before the fight.

So a USADA guy walking around with a scale weighing guys really does nothing. And then the issue is the advantage of lean mass, some guys function optimally a lower body fat % than others so they will be functionally bigger and have an advantage. Some people will still try to cut weight too and just say they got into better shape before the fight this time so how do we prove with a scale they didn't cut it? Maybe they cut it and then just fight dehydrated which is an awful idea too.

I don't know man, I'm just not sure how you devise this system.

 

[DapperDave]

Fight precursor: chronically low body fat, chronic physiological stress (injuries), chronic exposure to pathogens (wrasslin, travel, etc).
Fight week: travel, stress, extreme reduction of calories and fluids.

Go to pubmed and do a search on how stress impairs immune response.
Apply what you learn, hypothesize what everything listed above does to your immune system.

Funny - if you take out weight cutting, you eliminate more than half of the overall risk to fighter health.

 

[jx820]

There's only one rational explaination:

 

[ILove4MinutesHyuna]

There is no need to get your medical information from sherbros anymore

 

[DapperDave]

I get sick a few times a year and I don't cut any weight at all so...

Anecdotal data.

I'm 57, 10lbs overweight, and the last time I got sick with anything was one 5-day urti in 2015.

My immune system is different than other people's immune system, yours included.

If we both adopted camp lifestyle followed by a severe cut, our immune systems would both be weaker and less effective on weigh-in day.

 

[chimpoehurricane]

Seriously, i don't get why so many fighters get "sick" before their fights and in their post interview come up with this "excuse".You don't have any 8-17 job, no time constraint, nothing. The only thing you have to do is train and eat properly. Specially during fight camp till the fight you should be at your peak physical level (at least if you're a pro athlete). I get that cutting weight is taxing on your body and your immune system at that time may not be on his all time high, but its just paying a bit attention for a lilttle amount of time and you should still be in your top physical level since the fight is approaching.

Weight cut, travel, poor sleep, over training, lifestyle.

 

[Dionysian]

Anecdotal data.

I'm 57, 10lbs overweight, and the last time I got sick with anything was one 5-day urti in 2015.

My immune system is different than other people's immune system, yours included.

If we both adopted camp lifestyle followed by a severe cut, our immune systems would both be weaker and less effective on weigh-in day.

Nah I'm saying that I get sick a few times a year and I cut ZERO weight therefore if I cut weight it'd presumably happen even more often.

Point being, no, it isn't weird that fighters get sick before their fights.

 

[Banana Tree's Nemesis]

Wrestlers cut less weight but even when they weigh in and then hop onto the mats, they're still cutting. And if you're cutting without the opportunity to rehydrate, you're putting your brain health at serious, immediate risk. It's why in striking sports they do not do this, you must give the athlete time after weighing in. So this isn't a good idea realistically, unless you can find a way to enforce the prevention of weight cutting to go along with it.

I'm a bit ambiguous about that.
To avoid the absolute worst case of having fatalities, it makes sense.
But in general brain health of fighters is highly correlating with having a 'chin'. Fighters would know that they would potentially harm their performances directly by cutting too much.
I believe that most fighters would try to better be safe than sorry and fight at the higher weight.
The brain isn't the only organ affected by a weight cut, so performances would be impacted in more ways than one by big weight cuts.
I think fighters would try to avoid that at all cost.

After all there's plenty of amateur competitions where one can just walk in, get weighed and take part in potentially multiple bouts.
If you cut too much for that you're going to suck butt.
If the amateurs can handle it, so should the pros.
The amateurs might punch lighter, but the pro's are better conditioned to get hit.
Knockouts can happen in both.

 

[DapperDave]

...I don't know man, I'm just not sure how you devise this system.

It takes leadership. A promotion has to step up and set rules. That's it.

The fundamental problem is logistics: how do you eliminate weight-cutting without having half your fights cancelled every card?

The solution isn't that hard: integrate mandatory monthly weigh-ins into the usada program, conducted by bonded 3rd-party agents. If you can trust usada agents to test for peds, you can trust them to conduct weigh-ins with a digital scale that is calibrated with a 50kg calibration weight in front of all parties, at each weigh-in session.
Fight week: mandatory daily weigh-ins.
Written policy: set the rules and make them clear to all fighters, make sure all fighters understand he goals, and set stiff purse penalties for violation of weight rules. Then cancel a few fights until the cheaters get the message. Rule X - two weight violations and you get get suspended for 2 years; three weight violations and you get cut.

The fighters want to stop the weight-cut game. It won't be hard to weed out a few cheaters. Social pressure will help: no fighter will want to endure the massive social media backlash and bad rep from weight-cheating under the new rules.

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

A weight cut alone can simulate what a flu feels like, especially a bad weight cut. But yeah they get sick in this window.

 

[DapperDave]

Nah I'm saying that I get sick a few times a year and I cut ZERO weight therefore if I cut weight it'd presumably happen even more often.

Point being, no, it isn't weird that fighters get sick before their fights.

Gotcha. Thx.

 

[World eater]

Wrestlers cut less weight but even when they weigh in and then hop onto the mats, they're still cutting. And if you're cutting without the opportunity to rehydrate, you're putting your brain health at serious, immediate risk. It's why in striking sports they do not do this, you must give the athlete time after weighing in. So this isn't a good idea realistically, unless you can find a way to enforce the prevention of weight cutting to go along with it.

I disagree. Or to be precise, I agree to a point. If you had 5-6 hours to rehydrate, the weight cut would be small in order not to jeopardize the performance. The longest the interval, the more intense the weight cut. Shortening the interval is the only solution. However, there is no incentive for the orgs to do this, this is something that would be good for the sport itself, but would probably cost them money because weight-ins are a clown show as well. Because boxing does it. I would literally make them jump on the scale during walk-ins if it were up to me.
Nothing will change, obviously, this is just discussing a moot issue for discussion's sake.

 

[HuskySamoan]

It takes leadership. A promotion has to step up and set rules. That's it.

The fundamental problem is logistics: how do you eliminate weight-cutting without having half your fights cancelled every card?

The solution isn't that hard: integrate mandatory monthly weigh-ins into the usada program, conducted by bonded 3rd-party agents. If you can trust usada agents to test for peds, you can trust them to conduct weigh-ins with a digital scale that is calibrated with a 50kg calibration weight in front of all parties, at each weigh-in session.
Fight week: mandatory daily weigh-ins.
Written policy: set the rules and make them clear to all fighters, make sure all fighters understand he goals, and set stiff purse penalties for violation of weight rules. Then cancel a few fights until the cheaters get the message. Rule X - two weight violations and you get get suspended for 2 years; three weight violations and you get cut.

The fighters want to stop the weight-cut game. It won't be hard to weed out a few cheaters. Social pressure will help: no fighter will want to endure the massive social media backlash and bad rep from weight-cheating under the new rules.

We would need hydration tests week of, mandatory weigh ins during fight week and right before the fights. Beyond that we'd need a small allowance for fluctuations still. As for random weight checks outside of fight week, I'm not sure what you think that's going to solve...Pretty common fighters will put a good amount of fat and whatnot. Weight fluctuates a lot, fighters do drop weight during camp in a healthy and unavoidable manner sometimes too by virtue of diet and extreme training.

Just seems like a lot and there's still unanswered questions. Also USADA is a joke, nobody with a brain trusts them.